
Class QLlll 

Book Ay 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ANIMAL STORIES 
FOR CHILDREN 




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THE CHILDREN CAME OUT WITH RIBBONS. 



ANIMAL STORIES 

FOR CHILDREN 



BESSIE CAHOONE NEWTON 



Illustrated by 
JOSEPHINE BRUCE 




THE ARTHUR H. CRIST CO 
Cooperstown. N. Y. 






Copyright by 

THE ARTHUR H. CRIST CO. 

1911 



A " 



©CI.A303097 



To the Memory 

of 

My Father 

Dudley Newton 



Contents 



PAGE 

The Little Runt Pig . . . . .1 

The Proud Guinea Hen .... 8 

The Greedy Little Monkey . . . .13 

The Story of One Little Mouse . . . 17 

The Educated Dog . . . . .21 

The Story of the Little Colt That Lived on a 

Farm . . . . . .25 

The Headlong Heifer That Lived on the Farm 33 
The Kitten With the Double Paws . . .40 
The Four-Legged Postman . . . .46 

The Tiger and the Crocodile . . . 50 

The Giraffe and the Hippopotamus . .58 

The Lame Duck . . . . . 64 

The Sacred White Elephant and the Sacred 

White Monkey or "Noblesse Oblige" . . 71 

The Selfish Ostrich .... . 81 

Toaster . . . ... . 90 

Pussy Purrer . . . . . .96 

The Caterpillar and the Butterfly . . 102 

A "Proud Cat" Story . . . . 109 

A Tramp Cat . . . . . . 1 13 

Lambie . . . . . . .117 

Making Friends While the Sun Shines . . 120 

Proud-Cat and Cuddle-Kit . . . .124 

Rolly Poly . . . . . .128 

Billy Goat — A Butter . . . .132 

The Parrot and the Canary .... 137 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Jocco . ...... 139 

TOODLES AND TlNTY ..... 143 

toodles and the mllk boy . . . 147 

Tinty's Bath . . . . . .151 

TlNTY AND THE PAINT . . . .156 

The First Lession in Politeness . . .159 

Tinty' s Four Suppers . . . .162 

Tinty Finds out About Cats . . . .166 

Afternoon Tea . . . . . .170 

Parlor Tricks . . . . . .174 

Tinty and Miss Polly's New Hat . .178 

toodles and tlnty and the blrthday cake . 182 

Tinty Makes Friends With a Kitten . .187 
Tinty's Little Friend ..... 192 

TOODLES AND TlNTY FlGHT . . . .197 

Tinty and the Stairs . . . . .201 

Tinty Climbs to a High Place . . . 205 

toodles and tlnty have christmas . . . 209 

Tinty and the Law ... . 213 

toodles and tlnty and scrapper . . .217 

TOODLES AND TlNTY AND HlNKEY DlNKEY . 222 

TOODLES AND TlNTY AND BLUE BOY . . . 227 



Animal Stories 

For Children 



The Little Runt Pig 

t^i NCE upon a time there was a family of little pigs, nine 
of which were just as fat as little pigs should be. 
They were all just alike, all but the tenth little pig who 
was so much smaller than the rest that you could hardly 
find him sometimes when the family lay in a heap sunning 
themselves. 

Now this little pig was unhappy because he couldn't get 
his share of the food. The others would push and crowd 
him out until the poor little creature would say, "I don't 
believe there's a place for me in this whole great big pen." 

One day he spoke to his mother, "Mother, when am I 
going to begin to grow?" 

"You are growing all the time," said Mrs. Pig, taking 
her snout out of the mud to look at him carefully, "the 
others were no bigger than you are now when they were 
born." 

"But I can't catch up with 'em," said the poor little 
creature with a sad squeal. "You see they keep on grow- 
ing, too — and they call me 'Runt.' " 

"Stop crying," said Mrs. Pig, "get to work and forget 
it. If you can make it a name worth having they will for- 
get why they ever called you by it." 

Runt stopped crying and began to listen. 



2 ANIMAL STORIES 

"You can make up for your lack of size by being very 
clever. It often happens that people with very small 
bodies have big minds, — and that is the great point. You 
are far from being stupid, my piggie wiggie wee, and I am 
sure that something will happen before long to make you 
a very happy little pig." 

That very afternoon the boarders came down to see the 
pigs "feed." The hired man poured the skimmed milk 
into the trough which ran across the length of the pen 
while the pigs squealed and grunted so loudly that they 
could be heard way up at the house. They pushed one 
another and crowded each other out until it seemed as if 
they would eat one another by mistake. 

Runt had no chance with the rest. He stood way down 
at the bottom of the trough and then was crowded out en- 
tirely. 

"See those people," thought Runt looking up at the faces 
peering over the pen, "maybe they have something to eat 
with them; I'll go and see." 

So the forlorn little pig looked up at the visitors while 
the rest of the family gobbled down the food in the trough. 

"Poor little thing, he must be hungry," sard one boy, 
"here, wait a minute, Piggy, I've got some apples in my 
pocket." 

Runt caught the delicious fruit as it came over the wall 
of the pen. 

"I like it better than skimmed milk," thought Runt, eat- 
ing as fast as he could for fear his brothers and sisters 
would take it from him. 

Just then the pigs smelt the apples and came up grunting 
and squealing while the milk ran from their dirty snouts. 



THE LITTLE RUNT PIG 3 

"Go away, you horrid, great, big, nasty, dirty thing, " 
said the boy with the apples, "you can't have any of these 
apples. I gave them to the little pig because he is cun- 
ning." 

That night Runt went to sleep a happy little pig and 
dreamed of a pen so full of apples that there was no room 
for a pig in it. 

The next day the boarders came down again to see the 
pigs. 

"I'd like to have that baby pig for a pet," said one of the 
children. "He isn't any bigger than a dog and I want 
something to play with." 

Runt opened his slits of eyes in surprise. 

"If I could talk like a boarder I think I would ask them 
to take me right off," he said to himself. 

"Runt," said his mother, calling him over to the other 
end of the pen, "I have some good news for you. The 
farmer has told the children that they may take you up 
to the house for a pet. That isn't a common thing to have 
happen to you when you are a pig. You must let them do 
with you just as they will. Boarders are very stylish,— 
first of all they will put you into a tub of water." 

"Must I drink the whole of it?" asked Runt, "I'll try." 

"No, you must let them wash you with it: of course it 
will not be pleasant and no pig could wish it, but it is a 
part of their plan. Then you are to wear a ribbon — " 

"What's that?" cut in Runt. 

"It's some kind of a prize," answered Mrs. Pig. 

"What else will they do to me?" 

"They will give you the best of everything to eat, but 
they will not allow you to wallow in the mud which is one 



4 ANIMAL STORIES 

of the greatest joys a pig can know. You see your life is 
not to be that of a common, ordinary pig," said Mrs. Pig 
with an air of pride. 

Runt squealed with delight. 

"My poor little piggikins, I must tell you that although I 
am going to lose you, I am glad to know that you are to 
be so happy. Your life may be longer than that of your 
big brothers and sisters," added Mrs. Pig with a long sigh. 

That very afternoon Runt was taken out from the pen 
and carried up to the back yard where there was a tub of 
water waiting for him. 

"I don't like to drink all over," spluttered the frightened 
little fellow as the water got into his eyes and ears and 
snout. 

The farmer's wife came out with a brush and scrubbed 
Runt until it seemed to him as if all his skin were being 
taken off. Then the children came out with ribbons which 
they tied to his tail and around his short, fat neck. 

"Isn't he pretty?" asked one little boy. 

"He's pretty, but he still smells 'piggy/ " said a little 
girl. "Wait a minute and I'll see if I can't find some of the 
violet powder we shake on the baby after her bath." 

Runt stood as quiet as a woolly lamb while the children 
fussed over him and shook the white powder all over 
his clean little body. 

"Isn't he lovely and clean?" asked the children all in 
one voice as they watched Runt very carefully. 

Runt was very much pleased and tried to think how he 
could get a look at himself. 

"There's a puddle right out here," said the wise little 



THE LITTLE RUNT PIG .S 

pig, "and I'm just going to peek in. It looks back at the 
sky so I don't see why it shouldn't look back at me." 

Runt looked in and saw himself, as clean and pink as a 
new-born baby with ribbons the color of the sky. 

"I'm glad I'm little," he said to himself, "because if 
there had been any more of me they never would have been 
able to get me clean all over." 

From that day on this little pig's life was a very happy 
one for the children played with him from morning until 
night. At first they had to lead him around on a ribbon 
but by and by Runt followed because he loved the children. 

"I think," said Runt, as they fed him great bowls of milk 
all to himself, — "I think that I like these children better 
than my own brothers and sisters because they are so much 
kinder to me." 

The children brought Runt around to the front of the 
house and gave him a little chair all for himself. 

"Here, Piggy," they said, "we want you to sit up and 
look as handsome as you can, because we want everybody 
to know that we have got a prize pig." 

At first Runt longed for the pen, but when he thought of 
how kind everyone was to him he managed to forget all 
about it, which is always the surest way to make one's self 
at home anywhere. 

Before fall Runt was able to sit up and beg for the bits 
of candy and apples which were offered to him. 

One day he went to walk with the boarders close by the 
pen where his mother and the rest of the family were still 
living. 

Mrs. Pig was crying in great deep grunts as only pigs 
can cry. 



6 ANIMAL STORIES 

Runt put his snout through the bars and tried to see what 
the matter was. 

"My child, you are spared a great deal," came through 
the bars. 

"Spared what?" asked Runt, trying to work his snout in 
farther. 

"They took your biggest, fattest brother up to the house 
today and put him on the table with an apple in his mouth," 
she sobbed. 

"Why didn't he eat the apple?" asked Runt. 

"He couldn't, — " cried the lonely mother-pig, "the 
boarders wanted him for dinner — he was so big and fat." 

"Why didn't he run away from the table?" asked Runt. 

"He couldn't," said Mrs. Pig, "because he was all 
cooked." 

Runt looked very much frightened, "I thought the 
boarders were very fond of pigs." 

"I'm only too sorry to say they are — but my poor little 
Runt, don't worry. Your brains may save you. I am al- 
lowed to live only because I am able to bring up big 
families for the farmer. It wouldn't pay to get rid of me." 

Runt trotted off slowly feeling rather ashamed of his 
blue ribbon and all the kindness that the boarders had 
shown him. 

The weather grew colder and colder until Runt found that 
he was very glad of a chance to sit in the kitchen beside the 
stove. One day there was a great deal of squealing out 
in the pig-pen and then a long silence. A few days later 
the household were very busy indeed. 

"Come here, Runt," said the farmer on Sunday morning 



THE LITTLE RUNT PIG 7 

after breakfast, "if you'll get up on those hind legs of 
yours, I'll give you a piece of sausage." 

Then Runt sat up on his hind legs and ate the sausage, 
thinking that it was the best thing he had ever eaten in 
all his life. 

There are a great many things that a little pig doesn't 
know. 

The next day Runt went down to see his mother. She 
was all alone at one end of the pen, buried in mud way up 
to her knees. 

Runt stepped up daintily and put his snout in between 
the cracks in the pen. 

"Mother," he said, "please don't look so unhappy: what 
has happened?" 

Mrs. Pig made no answer. 

"Mother-dear," said Runt, "I am very sorry for you. I 
tell you what I will do for you, — the next time they give me 
some of that delicious sausage up at the house, I will bring 
my share down to you." 

Mrs. Pig gave one squeal that made Runt jump. 

"Have you had any of that sausage, Runt?" she asked, 
wallowing out of her hole. 

"Yes, mother," answered Runt wonderingly. 

"My poor wee little piggikins, you have lived to eat up 
the rest of the family! They are all in that sausage and 
I am left alone." 

Runt hung his head with grief. 

"Your brains have saved you, Runt," said Mrs. Pig. 
"Mind is greater than body as they tell us nowadays. 
There, run away, my little pig and forget all about it." 



The Proud Guinea Hen 

/^NCE upon a time there was a guinea family who 
wouldn't have anything to do with anybody else — and 
it was very foolish because this family were only hens 
after all. 

Mr. and Mrs. Guinea talked things over the day they 
went to the farm. 

"Imagine living in those tenement houses," said Mrs. 
Guinea with her small head in the air and her speckled 
feathers rounded out like a balloon-skirt as she skimmed 
around the hen yards followed by Mr. Guinea. 

The Rhode Island Reds and the Plymouth Rocks looked 
up very pleasantly although they knew that the Guineas 
were foreigners. 

"Look at those horrid litle cabins," said Mr. Guinea as 
he glided by a row of neat little houses every one of which 
had a yard of its own. 

"Think of raising a family in a place like that," answered 
Mrs. Guinea fluttering her graceful feathers, "How do you 
suppose common hens ever stand it?" 

"Of course we shall build when we find the right sort 
of a place to settle down," said Mr. Guinea who was 
taking a birdseye view of the valley below him. 

"It will have to be a long ways from here, that is one 
thing certain," said Mrs. Guinea, "for I have no intention 
of mixing in the fowl society up here." 

"Of course," agreed Mr. Guinea, "the fact that we are 
different in every way makes it impossible to have anything 
to do with these common barnyard fowls." 



THE PROUD GUINEA HEN 9 

"It goes without saying that we are different," answered 
Mrs. Guinea spreading out her wings and making a strange 
drumming sound. "Let's go down and look over the rock- 
land below." 

Mr. and Mrs. Guinea looked for some time until they 
found a grassy spot hidden away among the rocks and 
bushes just on the edge of the swamp. 

Then they settled down to housekeeping. It wasn't much 
work, for of course they took their meals out. "It's pretty 
poor pickings down here," said Mrs. Guinea scratching the 
ground with her airy little bill. 

"You can't get along without anything but pebbles in 
your crop," grumbled Mr. Guinea crossly. 

Mr. and Mrs. Guinea both looked hungry enough to eat 
each other. 

"Those common hens up there have their meals brought 
out to them," whimpered Mrs. Guinea, "I've heard them 
called— 'Chick, chick.' " 

"Let's go up and dine with them," suggested Mr. Guinea 
whose hunger was sharper than his pride. 

So the two foreigners went slyly skimming up the hill as 
fast as only guinea hens can get over the ground. 

"Chick, chick, chick," called the children while the 
Guineas worked their way in on the edge of a mass of 
wings and tails and fought for cracked corn like any other 
barnyard fowl. 

As soon as the corn was gone Mr. and Mrs. Guinea beat 
their wings and skimmed quickly back to their home in the 
valley as if they felt very much ashamed of themselves. 

And so it went on for weeks and weeks until the Guineas 



IO 



ANIMAL STORIES 



had two little chickens of their own — not yellow fluffy balls, 
but sober looking little Guinea chickens. 

"We shall have to be very careful of our children," said 
Mrs. Guinea, "because they must be kept away from the 
other chickens up at the hen yard. Chickens are always 
born without a sense of proper pride. " 




jose-pHi^e "E>Ruce 



"HUSH! KEEP ON E \TING AS FAST AS YOU CAN." 

But by and by the Guinea chickens became very tired of 
staying in the valley and began to follow their mother and 
father up the hill until one day the whole family came up 
at feeding time. 

"Mother,'' said one of the little chickens looking around, 



THE PROUD GUINEA HEN n 

"why can't we stay up here all the time? It's so lonesome 
where we are." 

"Hush!" commanded Mrs. Guinea. "Keep on eating as 
fast as you can." 

"That mother has twelve little chickens," teased the 
baby Guinea with his mouth full of cracked corn. "Why 
can't you take some of her chickens home to play with us?" 

"Be quiet, Chick," ordered Mrs. Guinea, "or I shall peck 
you very hard. Those hens up on the hill are only com- 
mon barnyard fowls. We are very different in every way." 

"Different in every way, are you?" clucked an old hen 
from somewhere very deep inside. 

"My family are from abroad," boasted Mrs. Guinea glanc- 
ing sideways at Mrs. Plymouth Rock. 

"We have an African to clean out our house," answered 
Mrs. Plymouth Rock without so much as ruffling one feather. 
"But he is black all over without any white spots at all." 

Mrs. Guinea made no answer, but called the other 
chicken to her side. 

"Mrs, Guinea," said Mrs. Plymouth Rock, "You may be — 
and I truly hope you are — different from the rest of us. 
But there's one thing certain — " 

"What is it?" snapped Mrs. Guinea almost ready to peck 
Mrs. Plymouth Rock's eyes out. 

"You have to eat just the same as the rest of us common 
barnyard fowls. You needn't think that we don't know 
what you think of us when it isn't meal time," added Mrs. 
Plymouth Rock growing so chesty that she looked like a 
pouter pigeon. 

"But I always leave the moment I have had my dinner," 



12 ANIMAL STORIES 

retorted Mrs. Guinea who was so angry that all her feathers 
stood out like a balloon. 

"That's nothing to brag of," replied Mrs. Plymouth Rock. 
"The commonest fowl on the place knows that you don't 
know any better than to eat and run. The children up here 
call Mr. Guinea 'Eat' and you 'Run.' It's a pity you can't 
swallow some of your pride along with our corn." 

"But I have to eat," murmured Mrs. Guinea with a tear 
in her proud eye. 

"So does every other hen," answered Mrs. Plymouth 
Rock with a twist of her head. 

"Come, chicks, come along," called Mrs. Guinea, "Your 
father is calling us. That common barnyard fowl did got 
the better of me. There's no use putting on airs when 
you have to eat another hen's cracked corn." 



The Greedy Little Monkey 

/^)NCE upon a time there was a greedy little monkey who 
found a tree full of nuts in a lonesome part of the 
forest in which he lived. 

"I shall keep this nut-tree a secret." he said with his 
little mouth full, "for if I tell the others there won't be so 
many nuts for me." 

Then the greedy little monkey ate and ate and ate until 
he could hardly crawl back home to the family tree. It 
was growing very dark, so nobody noticed that his cheek 
pouches were bulging with the nuts he had brought home to 
eat all by himself. 

"You are late for supper, Monk," called out Mrs. Monkey 
as he climbed the family tree. 

'T don't want any supper," said Monk as he went off to 
his own little branch to lie down. In a few minutes he 
began to double up at the waist and to wring his paws 
frantically. 

"Mother!" he cried, as all little monkeys cry for their 
mothers when they are in pain. 

Mrs. Monkey came scrambling up the family tree two 
branches at a time for she knew that Monk must be sick. 

She looked him all over, put on a mustard plaster and 
sent for Doctor Monkey over on Cocoanut Avenue. 

"What have you been eating. Monk?" asked Mrs. Monkey 
wrinkling her forehead as if to remember. 

"Nothing," groaned Monk. 

Just then the doctor swung himself into the family tree 
and came straight up to Monk's branch. He looked very 



14 



ANIMAL STORIES 



hard at his patient for a moment and then asked, "what 
have you been eating?" 

"I don't know," said Monk with another groan. 

The doctor felt lightly of his cheeks and said, "Monk, 
have you anything to eat hidden in your cheek pouches?" 

"No," said Monk, with another long groan, — not for the 
wicked story he was telling, but for the pain he was suffer- 
ing. 







WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN EATING, MONK ?" 

"Here, let me see your tongue," said the Doctor, prying 
his mouth open with a long spoon. 

"H'm," said the doctor, for he saw bits of the nuts stick- 
ing to Monk's sharp white teeth, "I think that you must 
have the mumps if you haven't been telling me a naughty, 
wicked story about those cheek pouches of yours." 



THE GREEDY LITTLE MONKEY 15 

The doctor looked at Monk again and waited for him to 
speak. But Monk didn't say anything because he was 
afraid. 

Doctor Monkey went to one side and spoke to Mrs. 
Monkey. 

"O, Doctor, I am so ashamed of Monk. He must be 
punished." 

"We will let him have the mumps," said the doctor, "he 
has brought it all on himself." 

The doctor and Mrs. Monkey came over to Monk's side 
and talked the case over, while Monk rolled over and over 
with the pain in his little insides. 

"It is a case of mumps," said the doctor looking over his 
spectacles, "I never saw the swelling more marked at the 
beginning of a case." 

"How about his treatment, Doctor," asked Mrs. Monkey. 

"Oh, give him a shell full of cocoanut milk every four 
hours and administer a tablespoonful of this bitter, black 
medicine every hour. You must keep all the other monkeys 
away from him, for fear of an epidemic of the disease." 

"For how long, Doctor?" said Mrs. Monkey looking at 
the sick little monkey. 

"Three weeks," said the Doctor, as he picked up his bag 
and started down the family tree. 

Monk's mouth began to quiver and the tears came into 
his eyes, "Mother," he sobbed, "I haven't got the mumps; 
I've got some nuts hidden in my pouches. That's what 
makes them so fat." 

"There can't be anything in them, Monk," said Mrs. 
Monkey very firmly, "because you told Doctor Monkey that 
there wasn't anything there five minutes ago. No little 



1 6 ANIMAL STORIES 

Monkey of mine could tell a wicked story. Monk, 
you've got the mumps, and if you haven't you have got to 
be treated for them." 

Monk opened his mouth very wide and begged his mother 
to look in, but she turned away her head and climbed down 
the tree without kissing him good night for the first time in 
all his little monkey life. 

Monk lay alone in the dark. He rubbed his stomach 
with his paws and cried as if his heart would break. 

"I think," he said, "that it's harder to make people be- 
lieve the truth after you have told one story, than it is to 
make people believe a story, when you have always told 
the truth." 

Now this was all Monk thought of all the three long 
weeks when he had to have the mumps. 



The Story of One Little Mouse 

\ / Y/ r HEN Mr. and Mrs. Mouse went to housekeeping in 
the wall between the kitchen pantry and the cellar 
stairs, they built a cosy little nest out of paper bags from 
the pantry and lined it with cotton nibbled off the pipe- 
wrappings down cellar. 

By and by there were six Baby Mice, only as big as the 
end of your thumb. They didn't wear grey fur coats like 
Mother Mouse and Father Mouse, — all they had on were 
funny pink tights like circus-riders. 

At first they could only eat and sleep and try to keep 
each other warm, until they began to grow fur coats of their 
own. Then they went out every day to play in front of 
the nest. Their playground was a safe place, for there 
was no way out of it, except the little round door above that 
led into the kitchen pantry. 

"Now, my little Mice," said Mother Mouse as she taught 
them their daily lesson, "when you see the light shining 
through the hole, you must never squeal, not even to your- 
selves. You must be as 'quiet as mice/ — for that is what 
the children upstairs always say, — you must sleep while it 
is day and work while it is night, — for that is the only safe 
time for us." 

"Your father and I go out every night to hunt for food. 
It is very dangerous, my little Mice, because there are 
traps waiting for us, baited with toasted cheese, and 
worse than all, there is the family cat." 

"Tell us about traps, Mother," said Bright Eyes who 
longed to go out and see the world beyond. 



i8 



ANIMAL STORIES 



Mother Mouse looked very sad for a minute, then she 
said, "Some traps are round with holes in them, and some 
traps are long with cages on one end of them. Your dear 
grandmother and grandfather met their deaths in this way/' 

Mother Mouse paused to wipe her bright black eyes. 

"It is hard to pass by the cheese and bacon, especially 
when they are toasted, but always remember, my dear little 
Mice, that a dead mouse can never eat any more cheese." 

"What is the family cat like?" asked Bright Eyes. 




"CHEESE! ' EXCLAIMED THE NAUGHTY MOUSE. 



"The family cat," answered Mother Mouse with a shud- 
der, "is a great black monster who could swallow you whole. 
She has great green eyes that shine in the dark, and sharp 
claws that tear you in pieces. They call her 'Mouser.' ' 

The other Mice huddled together in terror, but Bright 
Eyes said, "I wish I could go hunting. I am not afraid." 

"You must wait until you are older," said Mother Mouse 
as she divided a cracker among them for luncheon. 

But that very night when it was as dark as dark could 



THE STORY OF ONE LITTLE MOUSE 19 

be, Bright Eyes stole softly up through the round hole into 
the pantry above. At first he poked his head out to find 
if he could see anything of a pair of green eyes. Then he 
ran across the pantry shelf until he came across a bit of 
toasted cheese. 

"Cheese!" exclaimed the naughty mouse, with a wriggle 
of his nose, "and all toasted, too. I wonder what there 
can be to fear?" 

Bright Eyes walked round and round the cheese, as he 
said to himself, "It can't be a trap: it isn't round with 
holes in it, or long with a cage at one end of it, — and it 
hasn't green eyes. It can't be anything to be afraid of." 

So saying, the foolish mouse just started to take a 
nibble when there was a crashing sound and something went 
off with a loud snap. 

Bright Eyes was caught by his little tail. 

"I want to go home," cried Bright Eyes squealing with 
pain, but the cruel thing held him fast. 

"I want my mother," he squeaked, "she could get me out 
of this." 

He tugged and tugged and pulled, but the trap wouldn't 
let go. He could only drag it after him as he slowly made 
his way to the hole he had poked his head so cheerfully out 
of an hour before. 

Although it hurt more than anybody but a little mouse 
can ever know, Bright Eyes kept right on until at last he 
reached it. 

"Mother!" he cried, as he poked his head down, so that 
the trap turned over and lay face-downward over the hole. 

Mother and Father Mouse came hurrying up as fast as 
they could. 



2o ANIMAL STORIES 

"Get me out of this trap," cried the poor little Mouse. 

"I can't," answered Mother Mouse crying out loud. 

"Can't you nibble me out?" asked Bright Eyes sobbing. 

"No, I can't get to you," she said, "you'll have to help 
yourself. Pull." 

"It hurts," screamed Bright Eyes, but he kept on pulling 
with all his might and main. 

"Keep on," called up Mother Mouse, "and you'll get 
out." 

Bright Eyes gave one long squeal and came tumbling 
down through the hole into the mouse yard below. 

The trap still lay over the hole, — and O, dear children, 
there was a little mouse-tail in it! 

Mother Mouse took her little baby, all bleeding, into her 
paws and cried as if her heart would break. 

"My poor little Mousikins, my poor dear little Mousikins, 
how could you? You might have lost your precious life." 

"But you can put my tail on again, or else buy me a new 
one," said Bright Eyes. 

"I can't," sobbed Mother Mouse, "I only wish I could." 

"But I thought mothers could do anything," said Bright 
Eyes in surprise. 

"They can only try to keep you out of danger," said 
Mother Mouse sadly. 

"You told me about traps with holes in them, and traps 
with cages on them, but you didn't tell me about this kind 
of a trap," complained Bright Eyes. 

"You poor, little, broken-tailed Mousikins, I can only tell 
you that men are always inventing new kinds of traps for 
mice." 



The Educated Dog 



r^\ NCE upon a time there was a little Portuguese Poodle 
puppy who looked for all the world like one of the 
woolly dogs the children find on the tree at Christmas time. 
Her name was "Snowball, " because she was as white and 
round and beautiful as the flowers for which she was named. 

Her mother's name was "Snowball" too, because she was 
white and beautiful like her puppy — only not so rolly-poly; 
she was taller and slimmer. The two travelled everywhere 
together in company with a great many other dogs, each of 
whom lived in a little wicker house, just like Snowball's 
and her mother's. 

One day when the dogs were being carried from the train 
to the carriage, Snowball looked out between the bars to 
see a black cocker-spaniel puppy running up and down the 
platform all by himself. 

"I want to get out and play with that puppy," said Snow- 
ball putting her nose through the bars. 

"Why, that is only a common street puppy," remarked 
Mrs. Snowball, looking surprised. 

"But I want to get out and play with him," pleaded Snow- 
ball with tears in her bright little eyes. 

"You can not go," answered her mother, "because you are 
a member of Monsieur Dumas' troup of trained dogs." 

"But I'd rather go out and roll in the gutter, and bury 
my bones, and fight, than stay in this house all the time," 
whined Snowball out loud. 

"Hush," said Mrs. Snowball. "You should wag your tail 
for joy because your birth makes it possible for you to take 

21 



22 



ANIMAL STORIES 



your place upon the stage. Your grandmother, who is now 
in the Happy Hunting Grounds, as well as your mother, 
were there before you. That is greater than being free 
to roll in the gutter, and bury bones and fight. Any com- 
mon dog can do that." 

"I'd rather play with that 
puppy out there," whined 
Snowball with her tail tucked 
in. 

"But why do you want to 
play with him?" asked Mrs. 
Snowball comfortingly. "You 
are to be taught to sit up and 
beg, to lie down and die, to 
dance, and to say your prayers, 
and to jump through hoops 
and over barrels." 

"How am I going to learn?" 
asked Snowball, picking up 
her ears. 

"By standing beside 
me at the perform- 
ances and watching the 
snowball cuddled close to troupe perform, ' an- 
her mother. swered Mrs. Snowball. 

"'I heard Monsieur say that he would let you make 
your first public appearance this afternoon at the chil- 
dren's matinee. Your name is beside mine on the printed 
program. 

Snowball's little tail began to wag so hard that if it hadn't 
been fastened on, it must surely have come straight off. 




THE EDUCATED DOG 23 

That very afternoon Monsieur Dumas escorted his troupe 
of trained dogs to their blue velvet chairs on the stage of 
the great opera house. At his signal the curtains parted 
and the orchestra began to play a lively waltz. 

There was a sound like thunder from all over the house. 

Snowball cuddled close to her mother and said, "Mother, 
what are all these people here for? To hear the music?" 

"No," answered Mrs. Snowball, trembling with pride in 
her puppy, "they are here to see us. Monsieur has just 
told them that this is your first appearance." 

Aren't there any dogs out there to look at us?" whispered 
Snowball, as two of the dogs began waltzing in time to 
the music. 

"No, indeed," said Mrs. Snowball, "there is a sign at 
the main entrance which reads 'No Dogs Allowed'; I saw it 
when we drove past to the stage door in our carriage." 

"But why do they let us sit in blue velvet chairs on the 
stage? Aren't we dog-dogs?" asked Snowball as she 
watched the whirling figures a few feet away. 

"We are here because we are educated dogs," said Mrs. 
Snowball as she nodded her head in time to the music. 

"What is an educated dog, Mother?" asked Snowball, 
bobbing her own little head too. 

"Most dogs have to be supported by their masters; we 
support ours. They don't know how to do anything; we 
know how to do everything. If it were not for these per- 
formances we give, Monsieur could not live," said Mrs. 
Snowball as she jumped down in answer to his call. 

Little Snowball felt very lonesome in the big blue velvet 
chair at first, but by and by she forgot everything but the 



24 ANIMAL STORIES 

wonderful tricks her mother did, while every now and 
then the audience made a noise like thunder. 

"O, Mother," she cried, as Mrs. Snowball was led 
proudly back to her place, "Aren't you afraid of all this 
noise?" 

"No, little puppy of mine," explained Mrs. Snowball lick- 
ing Snowball's round little face, "they make this kind of a 
noise only to tell us that they like us. People can't say 
'bowwow'; we really can't expect it of them." 

"Mother," said Snowball, cuddling very close, "I'm so 
sorry for that little black puppy I saw this morning; he 
couldn't even sit in the audience, could he?" 

"No, he couldn't," answered her mother, looking proudly 
down upon her little puppy, "you see he isn't educated. 
Education is the only thing that will carry a dog into the 
best society." 



The Little Colt That Lived on a Farm 

/^\NCE upon a time there lived on a farm a colt whose 
name was Thunder, because he was born the night 
of the great storm that shook the hills around and lashed 
the ocean below into great white waves. He was an awk- 
ward little thing with legs that seemed too long for him, as 
he followed his mother around the barnyard. 

When Thunder was about a month old, he grew tired of 
the cows and the hens and the chickens and the ducks, and 
began to wonder about the world beyond his home. 

The family lived in a low, rambling house with the bed- 
rooms on the first floor as they are in Eastern bungalows. 
Thunder thought to himself, "Now, I could easily look in 
and see what this stable the family live in is like." 

The curious little colt put his soft black nose up to the 
blinds and began moving the slats up and down. 

"I can see in," said Thunder, feeling very much pleased 
with himself, "this little stall is pink. There is the manger 
over there, — but it's all covered with lace curtains. I don't 
see any hay or oats in it. I wonder where the little colt 
is who lives- in here." 

Just then Thunder's mother came up neighing loudly. 

"What are you doing, Thunder?" she asked. 

"I am trying to see the inside of this stable and the little 
colt," answered Thunder. 

"There isn't any little colt in there. This is a house and 
the animal that lives in this room is called a baby." 

Just then there was a little cry from the manger, and then 
another and a louder one. 

2.S 



26 



ANIMAL STORIES 



Thunder was so frightened that he kicked up his heels 
and ran away as fast as his long legs could carry him. 

"You do well to be afraid," said his mother, "for you 
waked the baby. Her mother will be very angry with you." 




ONE DAY HE TOOK THE DOCTOR'S SATCHEL. 



"I am sorry," said Thunder, "because I like that pink 
stall better than I do mine. When may I go in and play 
with the baby?" 



THE LITTLE COLT THAT LIVED ON A FARM 27 

"By and by when you are a big horse, and the baby is a 
big girl, you will be allowed to take her into school every 
day. I heard the family talking about it when they were 
out in the garden this morning. You will be a great deal 
of use to them later, Thunder, but you must not try to 
force your way. 

Thunder watched the window day by day until at last he 
saw it wide open. There was the little baby in her mother's 
arms! 

"I am going to play with the baby now," said Thunder^ 
but just then his master came along with a halter and a 
rope. The colt was very much pleased to think that he 
was being taken notice of at first, but just as soon as he 
found that he was to be led around by the halter, he began 
pulling back as hard as he could. 

Thunder threw himself on the ground, and laid his ears 
back on his head as if he didn't mean to mind anybody. 

'That man can't move me," thought Thunder, but some- 
one else came behind him with a whip. 

"I suppose I might as well go a step ahead as take this 
whipping," said Thunder after a long struggle. 

Thunder moved forward a step. Then his master patted 
him and gave him a lump of sugar. 

Thunder's mother came up at this point and spoke to her 
little colt: "Thunder, I am glad to see that you are learn- 
ing to take your place in the world. It is only when we 
learn to take our place and keep it that we can be of any 
use." 

And so life went on in the same old way day after day 
until Thunder began to grow large and strong. The baby 



28 ANIMAL STORIES 

too, had grown until she was toddling around with the 
chickens and the goslings and the baby-cows. 

Thunder was good, — as colts go, but of course, he made 
a great many mistakes. One day he took the Doctor's 
satchel right out of the Doctor's carriage and went across 
the lawn with it in his mouth like a circus pony. 

The family all laughed and said that it was too cunning 
for anything, but Thunder's mother called him to her, and 
said, "You must remember that people overlook a great 
many things that you do now, because you are little. It 
will not be so by and by." 

A few months after this, Thunder slipped his halter and 
said with a toss of his proud head, "I am almost as large as 
my mother now. I shall go to town all by myself. I don't 
need a carriage behind me to show me the way." 

The runaway slipped out of the barnyard and galloped 
down the road toward town. 

"It must be much nicer than the country," said Thunder 
as he nibbled his way down the grassy lane, "because the 
country people always go to town whenever they can find 
a horse to take them." 

Thunder went on and on, nibbling grass here and there 
and taking a bite of the hedges along the road, until he 
came to a place where there was no more grass and where 
the roads were so hard that they hurt his little, unshod feet. 

He began to look around and feel very homesick until he 
saw an old farmer who called out, "Ain't you the colt that 
belongs over yonder?" With that the farmer took out a 
piece of rope and tied Thunder to the back of his rickety 
old wagon. 



THE LITTLE COLT THAT LIVED ON A FARM 29 

"Well," said the colt to himself, as he walked to the time 
of the jingling milk cans, "I shall be glad to get home again. 
It's the place for me!" 

Thunder's mother spoke to him as he was led through 
the farmyard gate: "Thunder, it is time you learned to 
stay where you are put. No matter how kind people are 
to you, there is a place where a horse belongs." 

"Yes, Mother," said Thunder, as he walked shyly past the 
Flora Dora team, as the farm horses were called. 

"Have you seen the town?" asked Flora, munching her 
hay. 

Thunder bobbed his head. 

"The country is the place for a horse," said Dora as she 
lifted her dripping mouth out of the trough, "there is 
nothing like it in the town." 

Thunder and his mother had a long talk that night be- 
fore they went to sleep. 

"I can not be always with you," she said, licking his face 
lovingly, "for the time is coming when I am to be sold as 
a carriage horse in town. When I am far away, I want you 
to remember that I have brought you up to know your place 
in the world and to respect it." 

When Thunder's mother had been away for about a 
year, he made up his mind one moonlight night that he 
would not stay indoors and sleep. 

"Hear those frogs down in the swamp," he said, as he 
listened to the loud kerhonk, "they are out all night and 
they are nowhere near as large as I am !" 

Thunder slipped his halter and went out into the barn- 
yard where it was as light as day, for the moon was shin- 
ing bright. He made his way slowly around to the front 



3 o ANIMAL STORIES 

of the house where the door was standing open wide. It 
was only a step up onto the wide veranda where the ham- 
mocks and the Japanese lanterns were swinging in the 
breeze. 

'This floor is no better than the platform of my barn," 
said Thunder as he stepped up with his fore foot. 'There 
is no reason why I should not go in." 

With these words he made his way through the open 
door into the main room around which ran a gallery. There 
was a square space in the centre of the room which ran up 
to the roof from the rafters of which hung great Japanese 
umbrellas. 

'This place is big enough for me, all right," said Thunder 
looking around him. Just then he caught sight of the big 
mirror that was set in the wall, — "that must be another 
horse," he thought, as he went up to it in the uncertain 
light. "No," he said, putting his nose up to the glass, 
"that horse must be on the other side of this fence. 

"Here is the little pink stall where the little girl sleeps. 
I wish I had some sugar for her, — she always brings me 
sugar." 

Thunder stood near the door of the room and gave a 
loud whinny that aroused the dogs who had only half 
awakened when he came in. The little girl began to cry 
loudly and voices were heard from all over the house. 

The family were all very much disturbed, because no- 
body expects to see a horse in the house in the middle of 
the night. 

The dogs growled at his heels while the master came out 
with a stick and drove him back to the stall from which he 
had come forth so proudly half an hour before. 



THE LITTLE COLT THAT LIVED ON A FARM 31 

Thunder was never so much ashamed in all his life. 
He lay down on the floor and pretended to be fast asleep 
for fear Flora and Dora might ask him where he had been. 

The next morning the dogs came out and began laughing 
at him. 

"You were driven out of the house last night, Thunder, 
weren't you?" said Salambo, who always slept in the big 
easy chair. 

"What if I were," snorted Thunder, "I guess I'm just as 
clean and respectable as you are; and I am of more use 
any day!" 

"That isn't the point," said Salambo, who had brought 
up a big family of puppies that were a credit to her, "a 
house is not the place for a horse. A horse isn't of any 
use in a house, and a house isn't of much use with a horse 
in it." 

Thunder laid his ears back on his head. 

"You needn't be angry," said Salambo trying to comfort 
him, "I know that I wouldn't be able to drag the family 
into town, but I am satisfied to drag the babies out in the 
dog wagon and give them the best kind of a ride I can. I 
am content to stay where I belong and be of all the use 
I can." 

"Are you telling me that I am of more use to the family 
out here in the stable than I am in the house?" asked 
Thunder as he stopped biting at his stall. 

"That is exactly what I mean," said Salambo, wagging her 
tail, "we have all of us got a place in the world and we are 
none of us of very much use until we stay in it. If you 
keep in your place nobody will be obliged to disgrace you 
by putting you back where you belong," 



32 



ANIMAL STORIES 



"You are right, Salambo," said Thunder, bobbing his 
head, "I shall not forget my place after this — what you 
have been saying is good horse sense." 



The Headlong Heifer That Lived on 
the Farm. 

/^)NCE upon a time there was a little calf, or a "baby- 
cow" (as the little girl on the farm always says) that 
lived in a part of the country which is so beautiful that it is 
known far and near around the country-side. 

The barn stood upon the top of a hill from which one 
looks far out to sea where the great ships are sailing. The 
cow-path led out through a wired-in yard, over a field and 
down the hill, past acres of waving corn and wheat and oats 
and barley to the pasture land which lay among the trees 
and rocks in the valley below. 

When the "baby-cow" was little she used to stay in the 
yard with her mother, but as she grew older she was sent 
out to pasture with the rest of the herd. 

The first time Bossy went down the path she was very 
much surprised to see what lay on the other side of the 
ridge of rocks. The country lay stretched before her, 
broad and green and beautiful. There were meadows of 
green grass, more than any cow could ever eat, and water, 
running brooks of it, more than any cow could drink. 

"Bossy," said her mother, "you must watch me and be 
very careful, because there are many things that a calf 
must look out for in a swamp." 

The happy little calf followed her mother as she led the 
way over the green hillocks that looked like little islands 
in a sea of green. 

"Put your feet on the humps, Bossy," said Mrs. Cow, 
"and then you will be able to make your way all over the 

33 



34 ANIMAL STORIES 

valley. You can go from hump to hump to find the green- 
est grass." 

Bossy wasn't afraid; she went straight ahead, thinking 
it was great fun to jump on the little islands that would 
rise and fall as she stepped off and on. It was such good 
fun that by and by Bossy forgot to look where she was 
going. All of a sudden her hind feet went down, down, 
down into the mud below. Poor little Bossy was deep in 
the swamp mud, which you all know is very soft and slimy 
and seems to suck you in as fast as you can get yourself out. 

Bossy gave one great moo for mother cow who was chew- 
ing her cud near by. 

"Bossy," said Mrs. Cow, "you should look where you 
are going. You must plant your fore feet firmly on the 
hillock in front of you and try to draw your hind legs out 
of the mud. You can do it, if you have patience, but it 
will take longer to get out of the mire than it did to get 
into it." 

And so it did. Bossy struggled and mooed and mooed 
and struggled for an hour until she found herself with all 
four feet on the little hillocks. The little calf was so dirty 
that her mother led her over the bay-berry bushes and 
told her to rub herself against them until some of the mud 
should come off. 

"Now, Bossy," said Mrs. Cow, as she licked Bossy's 
scared little face, "you must look to see where you 
are going. It's always easier to get into trouble than it is to 
get out again. More than one cow has been lost in the 
mire who found it easy to fall in." 

And so the spring passed into summer and the summer into 
autumn until the bushes in the swamp were turned to colors 



THE HEADLONG HEIFER 



35 



of red and crimson and gold. By and by the little babbling 
brooks seemed to go to sleep and grew all white and hard. 
Jack Frost had lain his magic wand over the valley and 
made it safe for the littlest child to walk across the swamp. 
For long months the cows had spent most of their time 
in the clean white barn with the asphalt floors and the 







i '" Jc^CPHitMC^ROCC 



"I DON'T SEE ANYTHING INSIDE," SAID BOSSY. 

great iron stanchions. A man dressed in white came every 
night and morning and led them out into the barnyard when 
the sun came out warm and bright as it does on many days 
in winter. 

Bossy was longing to grow a pair of curled horns and 
give fourteen quarts of milk a day like her mother. Mean- 
while she was just poking her soft black nose into every- 
thing she could find from milk cans to green paint. 

But there was one thing she had never had a chance to 



36 ANIMAL STORIES 

get that nose of hers into — and that was the old well which 
had long since passed out of use. The well cover was a 
great flat stone with a hole in the centre which was always 
kept covered. One day some boys came along and took the 
cover off. Then they forgot to put it on again. 

"There must be something inside there that they don't 
want me to find out about," said Bossy, as she made her 
way across the lot as fast as any heifer possibly could. 

"I don't see anything inside," said Bossy, feeling very 
much disappointed, "I wonder if those boys took anything 
out." 

Bossy put her head way down to see a little more clearly, 
"I do seem to see something, I wonder if it is another cow," 
she said to herself. 

Bossy had looked in too far. Just then she felt herself 
going down, down, down, with her head first until she struck 
something stinging wet and cold. Then there was a great 
splash ! 

As soon as Bossy felt able to think at all, she saw that 
she was in water almost up to her neck, while way above 
her as far as she could see was a round hole which let the 
light down. 

Bossy mooed and mooed and mooed, but her mooes 
would all have been lost had not the master seen her fall 
into the hole at the top of the cistern. 

"That's how I got in here," said Bossy looking way up, 
"but I don't see any way at the bottom to get out. What 
shall I do? What shall I do? I'd be glad of wings like a 
barnyard fowl." 

Bossy listened a minute. Yes, there were voices above 






THE HEADLONG HEIFER 37 

her, and first one and then another face looked down into 
the well. 

A ladder was let down through the hole and a boy came 
down with ropes which he tied around Bossy's waist and 
legs. Then the boy went up again and Bossy felt a strong 
tugging at the ropes. 

They lifted her half way out and then Bossy felt herself 
going down, down, down again, and there was another 
splash. 

"It's a cold world," thought poor Bossy for the second 
time that day. 

The boy came down again and tied Bossy's legs more 
firmly. 

This time they raised her slowly and surely up, up, up 
until her head came out of the little round hole. 

"I am so glad I am out again," said Bossy, while the peo- 
ple all shouted "Hurrah !" 

"My, this hole seems very small," said Bossy in cow- 
language as she felt herself being drawn through the nar- 
row space. "I must have grown since I fell in." 

Bossy couldn't make herself any smaller, and so it was 
decided that the hole must be made larger. 

For a third time, poor, half-frozen Bossy felt herself 
going down, down, down, slowly but surely until she fell 
into the water below with a quiet splash. 

Poor, poor Bossy, her troubles were not all over. In a 
few minutes men came with crow-bars and began breaking 
in the top of the well. Down came pieces of masonry slam 
bang, hitting Bossy on the head and making loud splashes 
in the water. 

By the time the boy came down again to put the ropes 



38 ANIMAL STORIES 

around her, Bossy was too cold to feel anything. She never 
knew how she was drawn up into the beautiful sunlight 
above, and then led into the kitchen where there was a 
great roaring fire that made her blood tingle. 

Someone came with blankets which they wrapped around 
her and somebody else with hot drinks which they poured 
down her until Bossy felt as if she had swallowed a boiling 
brook. 

By and by she fell into a deep sleep. 

Late that night when Bossy was led back into the cow- 
barn, her mother said, "My poor little calf, you came very 
near going to the Happy Hunting Grounds today." 

"Are you going to punish me?" asked Bossy, looking very 
much afraid. 

"No," said Mrs. Cow, "you have suffered enough already. 
1 don't think that you will ever try to find the bottom of the 
well again." 

"I won't," said Bossy, shivering at the thought. 

"And now, you must learn, my curious little heifer," 
said her mother, "that people often keep things from you 
just because they know it is for your good." 

Bossy shivered again as she thought of the cold water 
below. 

"Think of all the trouble it was for the family to get 
you out again." 

"They said I was a valuable animal," said Bossy with an 
air of pride. 

"Perhaps," said Mrs. Cow, tossing her horns in the air, 
"but you know there is a society with a long name that com- 
pels people to be kind to every animal, no matter how 
poorly bred it may be." 



THE HEADLONG HEIFER 39 

"I don't see why they had to have all that fuss to get me 
out of the well," said Bossy, crossing her fore feet under her 
and spreading herself on the warm straw below, "if I could 
fall down that hole so easily, why couldn't I be taken out 
again just as easily?" 

"Bossy," said her mother, reaching out for a wisp of hay, 
"by the time your horns are grown, you will have found 
out that it is always easier to slide into a tight place than 
it is to be dragged out of it again. A tight place is always 
bigger when you are on the outside of it f" 



The Kitten With the Double Paws 

T\/f RS. TABBY sat out in the barnyard with her three 
kittens — Tiger, Tinty and Tiddlewinks. Tiger was 
the largest and strongest, Tinty was the smallest, while Tid- 
dlewinks was the prettiest. 

"Now," said Mrs. Tabby, as she watched the kittens giv- 
ing themselves their daily bath, "be sure and lick very 
clean with your rough little tongues, and then rub your- 
selves well with your soft little paws — every one expects a 
cat to keep very clean." 

"Now," said Mrs. Tabby again, as Tiger, Tinty and Tid- 
dlewinks went on with their bath, "it is time that you 
should be able to catch one of the mice that live in the 
barn and lay it at the feet of our kind master. He will 
not take it from you and eat it, because for some strange 
reason, people do not care for mouse-flesh — you will be 
allowed to keep it all for yourself. Do not take it to your 
mistress, for even big women are sometimes afraid of a 
little bit of a mouse." 

The kittens listened with their fore paws raised in the 
air. 

"There are so many mice in the barn now that you 
can easily catch one," went on Mrs. Tabby in her purring 
voice, "I have been keeping out of the way for the past 
few days to let you kittens have a chance tonight; all you 
will need is patience." 

"Where is patience? Is it something out in the barn?" 
asked Tiddlewinks, as she washed her pretty face. 

"A kitten has 'patience/ " explained Mrs. Tabby, "when 

40 



THE KITTEN WITH THE DOUBLE PAWS 41 

she looks and looks until she finds a hole and then sits 
beside it and watches for hours and hours without purring 
even to herself. She must keep her eyes wide open and 
right on the hole. When a mouse pokes his head out, she 
must keep very, very still and draw her breath in, for the 
time to catch a mouse is not until he is safely out." 







IT IS TIME THAT YOY SHOULD BE ABLE TO CATCH SOME 
OF THE MICE WHICH ARE |IX THE BARN. 

"How do you catch him?" asked Tiger with his eyes wide 
open, for he meant to be the first to bring in a big fat mouse 
to lay at the feet of his master. 

"When the mouse is way out of his hole/' answered Mrs. 
Tabby, looking proudly upon the handsome Tiger, "you 
must gather yourself together, give one great spring, and 
pounce upon him with your teeth and claws. " 

"Is that all?" asked Tiger, his striped coat fairly bristling, 
"then I shall catch more mice than Tiddlewinks and Tinty 



42 ANIMAL STORIES 

put together, because I am bigger and stronger; besides I 
have double paws — no mouse can ever get by me." 

That night Mrs. Tabby led Tiger, Tinty and Tiddlewinks 
out of the carpet-covered box where they had always slept 
all night long before. She took the three little kittens to 
three different corners, in each of which was a hole just 
big enough for a mouse to squeeze through. 

"Now," said Mrs. Tabby, in a very quiet meow, "you must 
keep your eyes wide open and wait for your chance — it 
needs much patient waiting to catch a mouse. I shall be 
in the hay loft above to see that nothing happens to you," 
added Mrs. Tabby, as she sniffed around with her long 
whiskers. 

It grew darker and darker in the old barn while Tiger, 
Tinty and Tiddlewinks waited in their three corners for 
three little mice to come out to them. There wasn't a meow 
to be heard, nor even a purr, as they sat like the three 
good kittens they were and blinked at each other in the 
dark — you know cats can see almost as well in the dark 
as little children can see in the light. 

Tiger was so sure that he was big enough and strong 
enough to catch a mouse that he forgot what his mother 
had told him about keeping on the watch. First he took a 
nap with one eye open and one eye shut — which is a "cat- 
nap" as the littlest child knows. Then he went to sleep 
tight with both eyes shut the way little children do every 
night. Just as Tiger was dreaming of barn floors covered 
with mice, a big live mouse poked his head out of the hole 
beside the sleeping Tiger and scampered across the barn 



THE KITTEN WITH THE DOUBLE PAWS 43 

floor to the grain bin. But how could Tiger know all this 
when he was only dreaming? 

But pretty Tiddlewinks in her corner was wide awake, 
although she had been waiting for hours and hours without 
any hope. After a while her bright eyes spied a head pok- 
ing out of the hole, and then a little mouse came boldly out. 
Tiddlewinks drew herself together, gave a great spring, 
and pounced upon him with her teeth and claws as her 
mother had taught her. The mouse didn't even squeal, so 
Tiger slept on peacefully over in his corner. 

Although Tinty was so little, he kept both eyes as wide 
open as any great, big kitten could. "Of course, I am 
smaller than the others," thought Tinty to himself, "but that 
is all the more reason that I must watch carefully and be 
ready to spring." When the little mouse came out of the 
hole beside Tinty he never even knew what happened to 
him, it was all over so quickly. 

As soon as the sun rose in the east, Mrs. Tabby who had 
been watching in the hay loft above, came down to see 
her kittens. Tiddlewinks and Tinty came proudly up to 
meet her, each carrying a big fat mouse. Tiger followed 
sleepily, without even so much as a baby mouse in his 
mouth. He looked very much ashamed, as indeed he 
should have looked to see what pretty Tiddlewinks and little 
Tinty had been doing while he was dreaming over in his 
corner. 

"He was going to catch more mice than all the rest of 
us put together, because he is so big and strong and has 
double paws," laughed Tiddlewinks — for there are some 
things that are enough to make a cat laugh. Tinty solemnly 
blinked one of his big green eyes. 



44 ANIMAL STORIES 

Tiger was so angry, most of all with himself, that his 
back rose in a hump and all of his striped fur stood up 
straight. He lifted one of his beautiful double paws and 
was just going to cuff Tinty when Mrs. Tabby caught it in 
her own paw. 

Then Tiger said "m-e-o-w, m-e-o-w, m-e-o-w, spitzzzzzz!" 
several times, in a way that should always mean a cuffing to 
any little kitten. Mrs. Tabby boxed his ears very hard, and 
told him that he must keep still or be sent back to the carpet 
box to spend the day by himself. 

"I could have caught more mice than all the rest of you 
put together, because I am big and strong, and have double 
paws, only I went to sleep, " meowed Tiger whose skin was 
still smarting with the sharp cuffs Mrs. Tabby had given 
him. "If any mice had come out of my hole, I'd have 
waked up and caught them without any trouble." 

"Tiger/' said Mrs. Tabby, still holding her paw firmly 
upon him, "you are wrong: I saw a big, fat mouse come out 
of the hole beside you and walk around you, but you never 
knew it, because you weren't looking for your chance." 

"Well, I'd have caught him easier than the other kittens, 
if only I'd been awake, because I'm bigger and stronger, and 
besides, the other kittens haven't double paws like mine," 
said Tiger, holding up first one and then the other of his 
fore feet. 

"Tiger," said Mrs. Tabby, like the wise old cat she indeed 
was, "your size and your strength, and even your double 
paws are nothing but a disgrace to you so long as you go 
to sleep in your corner, and let a mouse get by you. A 
plain ordinary cat who is faithful will always catch more 
mice than a double-pawed Tiger-giant who goes to sleep. 



THE KITTEN WITH THE DOUBLE PAWS 45 

It is faithfulness that counts, and a cat must always keep 
awake for mice!" 

"Now, Tinty and Tiddlewinks," said Mrs. Tabby very 
kindly, "Here comes our master. After he has seen the 
mice, you may eat them for your breakfast. ,, 

"What is Tiger going to have for his breakfast?" asked 
Tiddlewinks with a tear in her eye. 

"Don't you worry about Tiger," said Mrs. Tabby, blinking 
her eyes, "He is going to sit beside me and lick those double 
paws of his. He might as well learn just how much use 
they are to him in catching mice when he is fast asleep at 
his hole." 



The Four-Legged Postman 

/^)NCE upon a time there was a dog whose name was 
"Grip," which isn't the worst thing in the world for 
a bull dog to have. 

When he was just a roily poly bit of a puppy his master 
would put empty envelopes between his strong little jaws 
every time they walked home together from the village 
postoffice. 

Sometimes Grip would drop the envelope from his sharp, 
needle teeth because he wanted to go into the butcher- 
shop and put his nose into the scrap basket under the 
cutting-table. 

"Hold on, Grip," his master would say, coaxing him by 
the happy-place, "Hold fast. Home, Grip!" 

Then Grip would walk slowly, very slowly, until he 
reached the next corner. 

"Good Grip," the master would say. Then Grip's teeth 
would take a tighter hold on the envelope. 

As the days went on the letters began to have something 
in them; after that came fat, stuffy newspapers, but Grip 
learned to carry them together. 

One day Grip trotted proudly down the lane and climbed 
up the steps of the postoffice. 

"Bowwow! Bowwow!" said he looking anxiously up at 
the cage where the postmistress lived. 

"Here you four-legged postman," said the postmistress 
coming out of the "cage" and placing two letters and a 
newspaper in the dog's waiting mouth, "I'm afraid one of 
these letters has money in it. Home, Grip !" 

46 




THE FOUR-LEGGED POSTMAN CAME PROUDLY OUT OF THE 
OFFICE WITH HIS MAIL. 



47 



48 ANIMAL STORIES 

The four-legged postman came proudly out of the office 
with his mail. 

"Bowwow, Grip !" called a big setter with a wave of his 
broad yellow tail, "come along with me; it is a fine day for 
a run." 

Grip never so much as opened his mouth for a dog-gone 
"No !" but closed his jaws the tighter. 

"Meow! Meow!" cried a pussy-cat sitting on a low fence 
just above his head. 

"I love to chase cats," growled Grip between closed jaws, 
"but I must go straight home." 

"Here Grip," called the butcher boy, coming out of the 
shop with a basket of tid-bits. "Here's a bite for you." 

Grip's tail began to wag but his eyes looked very sorry. 
Then all four feet took close hold on the sidewalk while 
every muscle quivered under the firm flesh. Still he didn't 
let go. 

"Here, Touser," called the boy as Grip's friend next door 
came bounding up, "you'll have some, won't you?" 

The four-legged postman shook with longing for the 
meat that was going down Touser's throat. His jaws let go 
ever so little, his teeth parted gently, his tail wagged faster 
and faster. 

"I can drop the letters just a moment and pick them up 
again," he thought to himself. 

"Drop them," barked Touser. "There's plenty for both 
of us. Nobody will ever know it." 

Grip looked at the meat. Then he slowly clinched his 
under jaw, drew his body together, gave a spring and 
bounded up the village lane as fast as if he were chasing 
cats until he came to his own front door. 



THE FOUR-LEGGED POSTMAN 49 

"I couldn't drop those letters not even for a piece of 
meat," bowwowed the postman dog to himself as he laid 
the two letters and the newspaper on the threshold. "I 
couldn't — , I've been trusted!" 



The Tiger and the Crocodile 



/^\NCE upon a time there was a magnificent tigress 
who was known as the queen of the jungle in which 
she lived. This tigress had two tiger cubs, Tigris and Felix 
by name. 

Their home was in a part of India known as the Sunder- 
bunds, which is another name for the great swamp at the 
southern end of Bengal, where the mighty rivers overflow 
their banks on the way to the Bay of Bengal. 

This jungle home was one vast swamp, overgrown with 
reeds, canes and low growing palms which hid the mire 
beneath. The underbrush was filled with deer and wild 
boars, while the streams were swarming with huge croco- 
diles who kept their hideous mouths open for whatever they 
could devour. 

There was no more beautiful 'tigress in all the jungle 
than the mother of the two cubs. It was a glorious sight 
to see her tramping her way through the long jungle 
grass while the hot Indian sun shone down on her gorgeous 
yellow coat with the black stripes. The cubs used to look 
at their mother and wonder how long it would be before 
their grayish coats and faint stripes would grow to be the 
same brilliant color. 

"Mother," asked Tigris, "you aren't afraid of anything, 
are you? Not even a lion?" 

"Why?" asked Mrs. Tiger, looking down upon her cub. 

"I heard an elephant say the other day that a Bengal 
Tiger was as big and strong as a lion. And a lion is the 
most dangerous of all the other animals, isn't he, Mother?" 

50 



THE TIGER AND THE CROCODILE 51 

Mrs. Tiger walked on for a few hundred feet without 
making any answer. By and by she wheeled round and 
round in a circle three times after which she stretched her 
great body on the ground. She called the cubs who came 
and cuddled down beside her, one on each side, while she 
licked their faces lovingly. 

"Mother," said Felix, "is it true that we are any relation 
to the animals they call cats?" 

"Are we any relation to those wild cats, too?" asked 
Tigris, with a look at his mother. "If we are I am very 
much ashamed." 

"The cat family are only poor relations," said Mrs. Tiger, 
dismissing the subject. "It is better for you cubs to be 
thinking about your own welfare than worrying about the 
relations you can not help." 

The cubs dropped their proud heads humbly. 

Just then there was a sound of wings and a beautiful 
bird of the tropics flew calmly overhead. The hot Indian 
sun shone brightly upon him making him to shine like 
some radiant jewel. 

' 'Knowledge is power/ " said Mrs. Tiger. "Strength and 
size are not everything. You see the bird that flies above 
our heads? It is little, compared to my great strength, but 
it fears me not. The bird has wings, and knowing this, 
rejoices in his safety." 

The cubs watched the bird as it sped out of sight and then 
turned to their mother, "Tell us more," they said in one 
voice. 

"You know your own strength: you need not fear the 
mighty elephant unless he comes with Englishmen and 
rifles, because you are more clever than he. You need not 



52 ANIMAL STORIES 

fear the great buffalo, because you can lay him low and 
bear him to your lair. You need not fear the natives, 
although they go forth with spears against you. But you 
need fear the Englishman, because he bears with him an 
instrument that will strike death to your heart. It is not the 
man you need fear, — without the instrument, he dare not 
face so much as a young tiger." 

"Would he run if he saw us, then?" asked Tigris and 
Felix, looking very proud. 

"He would," answered Mrs. Tiger, smiling to herself 
under her chops. 

"I'm glad we aren't birds," cut in Felix, "because if we 
were, we couldn't fight all the other beasts and be kings of 
the jungle." 

"Don't be too sure that you can beat all the rest of the 
beasts in the jungle, because there are a great many things 
that you don't know about yet," said Mrs. Tiger. "You must 
learn to keep out of the way of an elephant's tusks, and to 
always see a panther before he sees you. Besides, there 
; <* that monster, the crocodile into whose mouth vour fatbpr 
went." 

Mrs. Tiger stretched her great limbs, shook off her 
cubs, and rose slowly to her feet. 

"Come with me," she said, pointing to the dark under- 
brush that led down to the pool from which she had always 
guarded her cubs. 

It was with difficulty that the young things followed in 
the path made for them by their mother's body. 

Mrs. Tiger drew the cubs suddenly to one side. "That 
was a cobra," she said, looking back to the struggling eel- 
like form in the grass beyond. 



THE TIGER AND THE CROCODILE 53 

The Tiger family made their way ahead very softly, for 
as you all know a tiger's foot is made of great pads, — just 
like cousin Pussy Cat's, only much larger. 

Soon they drew near a pool which was almost hidden 
by the reeds that grew around it. 

"Come, my cubs," said Mrs. Tiger, "I want you to look 
very carefully on the ground and see what footprints you 
can find." 

"Here are some prints of little feet," said Felix. 

"And here is a long deep place between the feet," added 
Tigris who followed close on Felix. 

Mrs. Tiger shivered and gave a low, growling sound that 
echoed through the jungle. 

"What is there to be afraid of?" asked Felix. "I could 
kill any beast with little feet like that." 

"You know nothing of what you are saying," answered 
his mother sharply. "Your own father, The King of the 
Jungle, met his death at the jaws of this very crocodile I 
am about to show you! I know his tracks only too well. 
The little footprints look harmless, in spite of the mighty 
tail which leaves the long streak in the mud. But the 
beast is covered with a coat which nothing can go through. 
The bullets of the English soldiers, the swords of the 
officers, and even the teeth of a tiger are as nothing when 
it comes to making an opening in that coat of mail he 
wears." 

The cubs looked as if they were afraid. 

"You need not be afraid if you know enough to keep 
away from him," said Mrs. Tiger as she looked carefully 
down the stream. 



54 ANIMAL STORIES 

"I'm not scared," said Felix, "because we're on land 
where we belong and the crocodile can't catch us." 

"There's nothing like knowing when you are safe. That 
is a part of the knowledge I spoke of," said Mrs. Tiger 
very kindly. 

Just then there was a sound of moving water, and 
something which the cubs had thought to be only a stone 
began to move itself through the stream. 

"Tm not afraid of that thing," said Tigris, "why should 
anyone be afraid of a thing that looks like a fat snake on 
legs? It's not so big as a buffalo and you brought one to 
the lair last week." 

"That's because you don't know. A tiger has more need 
to fear a crocodile than all the other beasts in the jungle! 
Until he knows it, his life is not safe. A tiger's teeth will 
not go through the horrible horny coat, so the crocodile can 
eat up the tiger before the tiger can hurt the crocodile." 

"What makes tigers go near crocodiles?" asked Felix. 

"Because they don't know how dangerous they are," 
answered Mrs. Tiger. "Beside that, the crocodiles know 
that tigers must drink and they lie hidden at the water's 
edge to catch them when they come at daybreak to quench 
their thirst." 

"Why doesn't the tiger see the crocodile?" asked Felix. 

"Because the crocodile knows a great deal," answered 
Mrs. Tiger. "He lies way down in the water as if he were 
just a big stone and then he pounces upon the tiger who 
bends his head to drink." 

The cubs looked at their mother as if they would learn 
their lesson well. 

Mrs. Tiger went on in the same low tone, "there is a 



THE TIGER AND THE CROCODILE 55 

spot in his great horny body which is soft and thin. It is 
right that he should keep it out of sight — that chest and 
stomach of his, because any tiger who knew about it would 
deal him a death blow in this vital part. He has the knowl- 
edge that makes him turn his back to us always — , and 
'knowledge is power' — The crocodile has killed more 
tigers than all the natives of India by remembering this." 
"I'll fight him when I am big," said Tigris. 




SUDDENLY THERE WAS A SPLASH. 



"Do not, unless you are obliged to do so," commanded 
his mother, "but do not forget that I have told you the 
only thing that can save you if that time should ever come. 

"Now, cubbies, say it after me, 'knowledge is power'!" 

Two years later Tigris was known far and wide as the 
King of the Jungle in which he reigned among the beasts. 
No more splendid tiger ever wore stripes. Travelers far 
and wide had learned of the beast who dared face the 
boats as they passed up the stream. 

One morning Tigris made his way through the long grass 



56 ANIMAL STORIES 

to the pool where he drank, ever mindful of the crocodiles 
therein. 

It was daybreak and the sun was low in the heavens. The 
world seemed one great silence as Tigris walked on his 
thick cushioned feet with a stealthy tread. 

He bowed his head to drink. 

Suddenly there was a splash followed by a pair of 
enormous jaws which opened wide. 

Tigris knew what to do. Unconsciously his mind sped 
back to that day and hour when his mother had led him 
to this very stream and told him how the crocodile could be 
wounded on the lower part of his body. 

With a mighty spring — and in less time than it takes to 
tell it, — the King of the Jungle hurled himself upon the 
crocodile with the open jaws. The upper teeth of the 
tiger struck upon the horny scales so that some of them 
were broken, but the lower teeth went in deep so that they 
entered the vital organs of the crocodile. 

For a few minutes they fought, the tiger and the croco- 
dile — until the pool was red with blood. After a while the 
crocodile ceased splashing about and the tiger walked 
slowly back to the lair where he found his mother and 
Felix. 

"Come and see what I have been able to do," said the 
King of the Jungle as he led the way down to the pool in 
which his father had met an early death. 

There stretched upon the edge of the pool lay the once- 
feared beast. 

The Tigress and Felix growled for joy. 

"Mother," said the glorious Tigris, King of the Jungle, 

'Knowledge IS power' — if you had not told me what you 



THE TIGER AND THE CROCODILE 57 

did way back in the old cub days, I would be in the grave 
of my father." 

Here Felix pointed to the body of the crocodile which 
lay upon its hard, horny back through which no tiger's 
teeth could ever pass. "Yes, 'Knowledge is power/ " he 
said again as he made his way across the jungle which is in 
the land of the Sunderbunds. 



The Giraffe and the Hippopotamus 

/^NCE upon a time there lived in the land of Africa, a 
giraffe whom the others nicknamed "Long Neck" 
because she was always admiring herself. The rest of the 
herd, of whom there were twenty, had grown very tired 
of her bragging. Whenever they would come to some 
dainty just out of reach of the rest of them, she would 
stand up very straight, hold her neck back and up, and then 
stretch out her long tongue until she reached it. 

Now all this made the rest of them dislike her. 'That 
Long Neck looks as if she were trying to lick a cloud off the 
sky," said an old giraffe who had talked to her in vain 
a great many times about her faults. 

"I can't see why you giraffes don't like me any better," 
she said as they were all feeding together on the edge of 
the forest where the trees would not lock over their heads. 

The giraffes didn't look at her although a giraffe can 
look all around him without moving his head. 

"I am taller and stronger and besides I have a longer 
neck than any other animal here," insisted the proud 
animal. 

The herd went on munching, while the old giraffe said 
without even looking around, "That's just the reason: we'd 
like you a great deal better if you weren't any better than 
the rest of us. You're more trying than a seroot fly," she 
added whipping away one of these African pests with her 
skimpy tail. 

The rest of the giraffes were very much pleased and 

58 



THE GIRAFFE AND THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 59 

went on browsing as if there were no such a thing in the 
herd as a superior giraffe, but Long Neck was so angry 
that she began kicking her long hind legs sideways and 
whacking her neck from side to side. 

"Of course if you don't want me here, I can leave," said 
the angry animal to the spotted backs which were all she 
could see, for the giraffes had hidden their faces in the 
acacias for fear that Long Neck would see they were laugh- 
ing. "I'm going — Good-bye," she added lingeringly. 

The sad giraffe made her way through a beaten track 
which led down to the river beyond. "Perhaps I may fall 
in when I go all by myself to take a drink," said Long Neck 
trying to comfort herself, "and then they will be very sorry 
that they treated me so unkindly." 

"Well, there's one comfort," said she to herself, "there 
may not be any water deep enough to drown me with my 
long neck. What is that noise?" 

Long Neck looked up to see a great animal drawing near. 
It looked like an elephant with its legs sawed off as it 
made its way slowly along. 

"Hello, what's your name?" asked the giraffe, glad to 
see anybody who might appreciate her. 

"Hippopotamus," grunted the animal. 

"Do they call you by that awful name because you 
haven't any neck?" asked the giraffe holding her own as 
if trying to touch something out of reach. 

"Well," answered the animal who wasn't as stupid as he 
looked, "it is sometimes as well to have too little of a thing 
as too much of it." 

The giraffe couldn't believe her own ears, so she an- 



60 ANIMAL STORIES 

swered back, "What are you doing out of the water where 
you might keep yourself out of sight?" 

"I came out to find politeness," said the hippopotamus 
who tried to look stupid because he really knew that he had 
come out to find some land food. 

"Does it grow here? Politeness, I mean?" asked the 
giraffe who didn't know half as much as she thought she 
did. "Perhaps your neck is so short that you can't reach 
it." 

"I have looked as high as your head," answered the 
hippopotamus, "but I haven't been able to see any." 

"Well," said the giraffe to whom all roads led to Rome, 
"don't you wish that you had a neck like mine instead of 
your own pig neck?" 

"H'm," said the hippopotamus quietly, "I heard a man 
on a boat say that you never could carry that head of yours 
on such a ridiculous neck if that head weren't made partly 
of air-cells to keep it from being top heavy. It's just as 
well to be like folks. Maybe you wouldn't be so empty 
headed." 

The giraffe didn't know what to say so she had to let 
the hippopotamus have the last word. 

The two went on their separate ways until morning. 

The giraffe who thought that the sun had risen for her 
benefit started out to take an early walk when she came 
to a pit laid in the pathway that led up from the river. 

"What's this for? As sure as I'm alive," she said, "I do 
believe that it's a pit and that that short-necked creature 
who was so impolite to me last night is in it. I'm glad of 
it; it's just what he deserves." 

"Hello," she called down more cheerfully than was 



THE GIRAFFE AND THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 61 

polite, "Don't you wish you had a neck like mine? You 
might get a chance to see out of that place you're staying 
in." 




DON'T YOU WISH YOU HAD A NECK LIKE MINE? 



"What good would it do me to look out so long as I'm 
caught?" asked the hippopotamus, "I told you last night 
that I had rather be like other folks and I mean it." 

"Whizz, Whizz," went a long rope from unseen hands. 
It whizzed around Long Neck's empty head and then fell 
down around her long, long neck. She was lassoed by the 
men who had laid the trap for the hippopotamus! 

"It was dead easy work catching this last one," said one 



62 ANIMAL STORIES 

of the hunters dropping from a tree, "that small head and 
steeple neck of hers make her a easy mark." 

The hippopotamus looked up out of the pit and smiled at 
Long Neck. "You see you wouldn't have been so easy to 
catch," he said, "if it hadn't been for that long neck of 
yours." 

"Well, they know it's unusual at any rate," answered the 
captive who was stupid enough to enjoy any sort of ap- 
preciation. 

The two animals were carried as prisoners across the 
land until they came to a big ship where they were led 
down a plank walk into a place where it was very dark 
and stupid. Pretty soon the ship began to roll and pitch 
and then it wasn't so stupid. The giraffe and the hippo- 
potamus were thrown from one side to another until it 
seemed as if they would be killed. 

But it was worse than that — they were sea sick. 

"It must be hard to be sea sick when it's such a long 
distance from your stomach to your mouth," remarked the 
hippopotamus who was glad to find someone worse off than 
himself. 

The giraffe didn't answer. She knew that whatever she 
said wouldn't go down. 

"You'll eat your own words yet," went on the hippo- 
potamus secretly very much pleased at the sight of the 
giraffe's misery. "You'll live yet to wish yourself like 
folks." 

"Don't talk about eating," gasped the giraffe forgetting 
her neck for once, "I'll never eat anything again until I'm 
dead and buried, and I don't care what happens to me then." 



THE GIRAFFE AND THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 63 

And so it went on for endless days and nights until the 
two animals found themselves in a circus. 

"Well, we shall have a chance to see the world," said 
the hippopotamus trying to make the best of it. 

"The world will have a chance to see me," said the 
giraffe who really believed that that was all that there was 
left her to be thankful for. 

The life was a hard one on both of them; the hippo- 
potamus had only a tankful of water in which to swim 
instead of a riverful, while the giraffe had only a small 
bagful of air at the top of her cage to stick her head out 
through. 

"Oh dear, Oh, dear," said the giraffe, without thinking 
"I wish I hadn't such a long neck." 

The hippopotamus looked up. 

"Such a low cage," said the giraffe correcting herself 
hastily. 

"Look here," said the hippopotamus, "the murder is out 
and you might as well own up to it. You've come to find 
out that everything in this world is made for the general 
run of people and it pays to be like folks. No longer, no 
shorter, only just like the average. If you've got a yard 
too much neck the circus company and the railroad and the 
President of the United States can't change all their plans 
for you. You've simply got to be uncomfortable and get 
along with things as they are." 

"You are right, Hippo," answered the giraffe who had 
learned a great many things these latter days, "it pays to 
be like folks, but I've had to belong to a circus to find it 
out!" 



The Lame Duck 

/^\NCE upon a time there was a family of ducklings who 
lived with Mother Duck on a poor little backwood's 
farm. The first thing the little creatures could remember 
was looking around them and wondering what the world 
outside an eggshell could mean — that was all they thought 
as one by one, they began to waddle around on shaky legs 
with bits of the shell still sticking to their wet little coats. 

Do you know, dear children, that a baby duck is just as 
yellow and soft as a canary bird? His baby clothes are so 
pretty that it seems too bad he ever has to grow up at all. 

Mother Duck was very proud of her little brood and took 
the best care in the world of them. When it was cold, she 
would cover them with her great white wings as they all 
cuddled into the nest of straw. Their home was just a 
tiny bit of a house, made out of an old dry goods box 
with a pointed roof of two boards nailed together. 
There was a door that opened out into a square yard fenced 
in with wire-netting, within which the ducklings found their 
playground. Their food was brought to them by the two 
children who lived in the cottage. 

It was a pretty sight to see all the downy yellow heads 
cuddled around one big dish, as they pushed in their greedy 
little bills. 

After the children had fed the ducks they would pour 
fresh water into the low earthen fountain which was used 
to keep the little creatures from wetting their backs, which 
for some strange reason, is the last thing a duckling wants 
to do. It was fun to watch them drink, for they would hold 

64 



THE LAME DUCK 65 

their necks back to let the water run down their long throats 
after each swallow. 

As the ducklings grew larger the wire fence was taken 
away that they might go out and scratch for themselves. 
At first they went only a few feet from the bit of a house 
where they had spent all their short lives, but after a while 
they learned their way down to the brook that ran through 
the valley below which was the loveliest place in the world, 
all swampy and overgrown with reeds and rushes. 

The brook had a voice — it must have had, because it 
talked all the time in the sweetest tones. It couldn't say 
"Quack, Quack/' to be sure, but it made a much sweeter 
sound. The ducklings would paddle in and out over the 
hillocks until they reached the pond beyond the brook and 
stay from sunrise until sunset. First, they would dip their 
bills into the water, then plunge their long necks, then they 
would dive for eels and pollywogs and minnows, or any- 
thing else they could find. 

By this time you could hardly tell the ducklings from 
Mother Duck, because they had shed their yellow coats 
and were wearing white ones like her own. The children 
loved to go down to the pond and watch these great white 
birds swimming in the blue water which was almost hidden 
by the green rushes waving around it. 

One day there was a great quacking by the side of the 
pond, on the path that led down through the rushes. The 
ducks seemed to be struggling for something which lay 
beneath them on the ground. They quacked sharply, 
flapped their wings and snapped with their bills until it 
seemed as if they would eat each other. All but one 
duck — and he was lame. The poor little fellow had wad- 



66 ANIMAL STORIES 

died slowly toward the others but could take no part in the 
fight. 

Just then Mother Duck swam up and called out, "What 
is the matter, my poor little Duckie?" 

'The others have a young frog, Mother, ,, said the Lame 
Duck, "but I got here too late to try for my share." 

"I'm glad of it," said Mother Duck, shaking out her 
feathers, "You'd better eat nothing bigger than pollywogs 
all your life than fight for frog flesh." 

The wrangling went on until all of a sudden, Diver, the 
largest one of the family, gave a big gulp and worked his 
neck back and forth as fast as he could. 

"Diver's got him!" quacked the others in an angry voice 
as they watched the tidbit go out of sight. 

"Diver," said his mother, "I am ashamed of you, making 
such a quacking over one miserable little frog who hasn't 
lived long enough to learn to croak yet." 

The rest of the family nodded their approval as they 
looked at their big brother. 

"You are all of you to blame," Mrs. Duck went on, 
"Diver only happened to be the lucky one. Now, you may 
all of you waddle as fast as you can up to the hill behind 
the house and stay until it is time to go to bed. You can't 
play near the water again today." 

The ducks went slowly up the hill, not daring to give so 
much as a single quack for fear of a good pecking from 
Mother Duck's sharp bill. 

"Mother," said the Lame Duck, "I am so unhappy. It's 
no fun to be lame and always be out of everything. Why 
was I born lame? Was it because I was ever naughty?" 



THE LAME DUCK 67 

"No, Duckie," said Mrs. Duck looking sadly down at his 
poor foot, "it only happened, that's all. It's as hard for 
me as it is for you to see you this way." 

"What can I do about it?" asked the poor creature, look- 
ing as if he hadn't a friend in the world. 

"You must make the best of it, and forget it," answered 
his mother. 

"I can't forget it. It won't let me. I can't get there 
with the rest of the family because I have only one good 
foot. It just sticks in my crop," said Duckie, who knew 
that this was the worst way a bird has ever been known to 
feel. 

"I understand, you poor little fellow," said his mother, 
"but we must all bear our share of trouble in this world. 
You may yet live to see that you are not the most unhappy 
little duck in the world after all. Sometimes if we endure 
our troubles with courage a great happiness comes to us 
when we least expect it." 

"How r do we know that it will come?" asked the young 
duck. 

"Because if we make the most of what we do have, it 
can not fail to come," answered his mother. "Be brave 
and patient about this poor foot and perhaps it may be the 
means of making everybody love you." 

"The children up at the house call me The Lame Duck,' ' 
said the little cripple. 

"That is because they are sorry for you. Tity is akin 
to love' which is the greatest thing in the world. Now, 
the next time they speak to you, just quack politely and 
look them straight in the face as if you were like other 
ducks. Don't waddle off and try to hide yourself under a 



68 ANIMAL STORIES 

bush, for nobody else thinks half as much about that poor 
foot as you do." 

The lame duck remembered all that h r s mother had 
said to him and the next day when the children came out, 
he quacked politely and looked straight at them as if he 
didn't want to run away and hide under a bush. 

"Why, that lame duck is tame after all," they said in 
surprised voice. "Poor little fellow, let's feed him some 
of this nice soft grass." 

Duckie ate from their hands although he could have 
pulled up a square yard of grass with his strong bill while 
they were thinking about doing it. 

The children passed on while Mother Duck smiled at her 
duckling and said, "You're coming on all right. Just keep 
it up!" 

The next day the children came out and fed him again. 
This time it was something nice from their own table — 
Duckie didn't know what. 

He was just as polite as a duck could be, so much so 
that he allowed the children to stroke his soft white neck 
and smooth his feathers. 

He didn't peck even when they stroked them the wrong 
way. 

"He's such a nice duck, I'm sorry he's lame," said the 
boy one day. 

"That's why I liked him in the first place," said the little 
girl, "but when you know how nice he is you never think 
anything about it. He's lots bigger than his lame foot, 
you know," she said smiling down at Duckie. 

And so it went on for weeks until the weather grew colder 
and there was a thin coat of ice around the pond in the 



THE LAME DUCK 69 

early morning. One day, Duckie heard the family talking. 

"It's most Thanksgiving," said the widowed mother to her 
children, "and it's time to crate the ducks and send them 
into town. I know r we can't afford to lose the money, but 
I have planned to keep one for our own dinner. It will be 
almost as good as having a turkey." 

Ducky felt just the way he did the night the lightning 
struck the big tree outside the coop. The children began 
to cry, "Oh, don't let the lame duck go. We just love him." 

"You forget how poor we are since your father died/* 
said their mother. 

But the children only cried, "We want to keep the lame 
duck." 

The mother thought for a minute. "Children," she said 
finally, "I am going to give you your choice: you may keep 
the lame duck for a pet or you may have him for — " 

"We'll keep him and go without our dinner," cried the 
children. "We just love him." 

Duckie went back to tell his mother all that he had heard 
that day. 

"They are good children," said Mrs. Duck, looking very- 
sad. "What did I tell you, my duckie? It is that poor lame 
foot of yours that has made them love you. You can't 
just pity a person who is brave, you must learn to love 
him." 

Duckie said, "I've found out that you are right." 

"Love and sympathy are the things our world needs 
most," went on Mrs. Duck, "and that is why some of us 
must suffer — just to let the others be sorry for us. It 
makes them better." 



7 o ANIMAL STORIES 

'Tve forgotten all about my lame foot since they've 
been so good to me," said Duckie. 

"So has everybody else," answered his mother. 

Duckie didn't sit on anybody's Thanksgiving table; he 
sat at one, the guest of honor with a ribbon around his neck. 
He was "stuffed" with bread and butter and cranberry 
sauce and cornbeef, which was all the family in the cottage 
behind the hill had for dinner. 






The Sacred White Elephant and the 

Sacred White Monkey; Or 

' 'Noblesse Oblige' ' 

/^\NCE upon a time, — and the time was not so long 
ago. — there roamed through the land of Siam a herd 
of elephants who ploughed deep into the jungles, trampled 
through the forests and swam the rivers, under their 
leader the mighty "Tusker." Tusker led them where the 
water was most plentiful and where the herbage was thick- 
est. Sometimes they would come across a grove of cocoa- 
nuts which the elephants would trample under foot until 
the juicy milk came out. Then they would take up the 
open fruit with their handy trunks and put it into their 
mouths. In the night time the herd would sometimes come 
out into the open, feeling their way carefully along with 
their big round feet. In the daytime they would keep under 
cover of the trees of the forest and the thick jungle grass. 

Sometimes this roaming herd would see an elephant with 
a man riding on his head. But the elephant never did them 
any harm — all he did was to drive them now to the east, 
now to the west and then go away again. 

The whole herd were a dull gray excepting one elephant 
who was a dirty drab color with a few white hairs on his 
head and tail. The others called him Albino and laughed 
at him until he used to cover himself with all the mud 
puddles that he could squirt out of his long trunk. One 
day when they had been teasing him more than usual he 
thought in his elephant mind "I wish that I could be like 

7i 



72 ANIMAL STORIES 

folks," — of course "folks" to him meant every other 
elephant. 

The reason he was so discouraged was that the rainy 
season was beginning to get on his nerves. 

One day when the herd were only a few miles from the 
ancient capital, Ayuthia, a very strange thing came to pass. 
A mammoth elephant with enormous tusks came out to 
greet the herd. Slowly and calmly he made his way up to 
them and asked them to follow him. Perhaps he knew of 
cocoanut trees and young bamboos, thought the elephants 
on the front and so they followed their would-be leader. 
Had he not come out to meet them ? 

The great creature walked over the brush down to the 
water's edge and cautiously stepped in, the others follow- 
ing as sheep follow their leader over a wall. Some of the 
elephants didn't want to follow but they were pushed along 
with the others until at last the herd of Tusker were all 
swimming across the river led by an elephant who had been 
a stranger to them but an hour before. 

It is always easy to follow anyone along a broad and 
pleasant path. 

After they reached the other side of the river they 
clambered up the bank on to dry ground from which they 
saw in the distance a great grove of trees. 

"Elephants/' trumpeted Tusker, "I don't like the looks 
of our friends in the distance who are carrying men on 
their heads! They are leading us somewhere not for our 
own good. Why should an animal with brains in its head 
like a man come out to do us honor? Let us turn back." 

The elephants turned one and all to follow their old 
leader, but it was too late. Guard elephants with spears- 



"NOBLESSE OBLIGE" 73 

men stood to the right of them, to the left of them, in front 
of them and in back of them. 

The herd could only go ahead whether they would or not 
until they reached a great enclosure which opened into a 
smaller one known as the "paneat." 

A mighty shout went up from the thousands who stood 
around the high wall. 

Albino held his head low for fear that the crowd were 
making fun of his pale skin. Suddenly a roar went up 
from the multitude until the place shook as in a storm. 
Many of the men fell upon their knees and bowed their 
faces to the dust. 

"A white elephant! A White Elephant! A WHITE 
ELEPHANT!" they shouted louder and louder. "Now 
shall we triumph over our enemies! Long live the white 
elephant! Long live the kingdom!" 

Albino knew that everybody was looking at him and that 
made him just as uncomfortable as it does some of us 
smaller creatures. 

For how was he to know that he was the most sacred 
thing in all Siam, a white elephant? How was he to know 
that his image was carved on all the public buildings, the 
temples and carried upon the national flag? 

And all because an ancient legend says that some day 
a monarch shall appear who shall rule every nation under 
the sun. There are seven things by which the monarch 
shall be known — one of which is a white elephant. 

Elephants with men upon them came up to Albino and 
stood around him so that he could not move. Then a man 
threw out a piece of rope with a coil at one end of it which 
caught under one of Albino's great round feet. Suddenly it 



74 



ANIMAL STORIES 



was pulled tight up around his knee and the other end made 
fast to a giant tree. 

The white elephant was a prisoner indeed. He tried 
to get away but he could not for the rope held him as fast 
to the tree as the roots held the tree to the ground. Then 
Albino gave a mighty howl and trumpeted so loudly that the 




THE WHITE ELEPHANT WAS A PRISONER INDEED. 



other elephants fell into a panic. Some of the natives 
grew sick with fear because they believe that the soul of 
some departed prince lives within this sacred animal, and 
it is not well to make him angry. 

He squirted all the water out of his trunk over his head 
and shoulders and lashed his trunk against the tree until it 



"NOBLESSE OBLIGE" 75 

seemed as if he would kill himself, trumpeting loudly all 
the while. 

After a time there was nothing left for him to do but 
lie down and go to sleep — so tired was he from giving way 
to the temper which was stronger than himself — although 
he could have easily dragged three tons. 

A few days later Albino was tied by silken cords to a 
mighty post until all the princes and nobles whom the King 
had sent came to do him honor. They fell on their knees 
before him and gave him gifts of priceless value. 

"I am glad that I am not expected to carry them around 
on my back," said Albino who little dreamed where all this 
was to end. He just ate up the sugar cane they gave him 
and enjoyed the present moment which perhaps is the 
best thing to do after all. 

Then ambassadors came from the King to guard Albino 
while the tamers taught him how to behave himself while he 
was being worshiped. It was not long before he was 
polite enough to be led down to the new capitol, Bangkok, 
where the King himself came out to meet him. 

After a royal christening Albino was led to his new home 
which was a palace fit for a prince to live in. 

This isn't like the fairy stories, for Albino didn't "live 
happily ever afterwards." Albino didn't like his new 
home. To be sure he had no end of clothes or blankets, 
embroidered as beautifully as the King's own, kept in 
carved chests to be worn on sacred days. He even wore a 
crown upon his forehead with his name written thereon. 

He never need have been lonesome, for besides the white 
monkey who lived close to him (a white monkey is another 
of the things the King who shall conquer all nations is 



76 ANIMAL STORIES 

known by) he had the constant company of hundreds of 
yellow robed priests who sang him to sleep and hundreds 
of dancing girls who sang him awake. Then he had the 
best of everything to eat, — the finest vegetables and the 
rarest fruits. Everything was cut up and ready for him, — 
his sacred feet were not meant to trample open cocoanuts. 

Albino fell into a decline which puzzled the court. Al- 
though the chief surgeon was, a small man he didn't dare 
to refuse when the King sent him to rub chillies into Al- 
bino's eyes, — for that is the way the elephants in Siam 
.-always take their medicine. 

It smarted but it didn't do any good. Albino was just 
pining his life out for a tramp in the jungle and a trunk- 
ful of muddy water. 

"Look here, you elephant/' said the sacred white monkey 
with a wise pucker of her wrinkled forehead, "do you know 
what folks say?" 

"Who are 'folks' ?" answered the elephant, "and what do 
you know about them?" 

"I'm cousin to folks, I am," said the sacred white monkey 
standing up against the bars, "because my great, great, 
great, I don't know how many times great grand uncle 
was the missing link'' 

"What's that?" asked the elephant, "what do you know 
about him?" 

"Nothing at all," said the sacred white monkey, "only 
there is the family tradition which may account for people 
looking like us. The family tree died at its roots when 
Adam tended the garden which is east of the Euphrates, 
•so I can't prove anything of course." 



"NOBLESSE OBLIGE" 77 

"What good does that do you?" asked the elephant rather 
crossly. 

"It does me a great deal of good," snapped the monkey, 
"because people, some of them, believe that folks came 
from monkeys." 

"Humph!" answered the elephant swinging his trunk, 
"then why can't monkeys makes themselves folks instead of 
sitting up in cages and being worshiped?" 

"They could once," chattered the sacred white monkey in 
a rage, "but a voice called out Time's up' a few thousand 
years ago and monkeys have had to keep on being monkeys 
ever since, although some folks have succeeded in making 
monkeys of themselves," added the monkey. 

"Well, I am much larger than you are," said the elephant 
who couldn't brag about his family. 

"But look at my hand," said the monkey holding out her 
almost human fingers. "There is no other living animal 
with a paw like this. It is a hand!" 

The elephant didn't even look up but held out his trunk, 
"Do you see this trunk of mine?" he said, "Well, it has 
forty thousand muscles in it. You haven't that many in 
both of your paws put together." 

"My hands," corrected the monkey. 

"What do you stay here for, anyway?" asked the ele- 
phant turning the subject. "Is it because you are a cousin 
to folks?" 

Mrs. Monkey looked down on the elephant in pity. "The 
reason that I am here is because I am the sacred white 
monkey; the reason that you are here is because you are the 
sacred white elephant. We belong to the Kingdom ; we are 
not our own." 



78 ANIMAL STORIES 

Albino was surprised, "I knew there was something queer 
about me," he said, "or else I would be allowed to go out 
and carry folks on my back instead of having them get 
down on their knees to me." 

The sacred white monkey folded her hands piously across 
her hairy chest, "No, you do not," she said. "You see that 
some folks in this world are not like other folks. They 
are obliged by nature and by birth to live for others. The 
King lives for his kingdom; he can not go where he will, 
he can not even sleep alone, for fear his life may come tc 
harm. It is not a happy life but he endures it for the sake 
of his people." 

The sacred white monkey paused for breath and then 
went on, "The fate of a kingdom hangs on you and me, — 
we can not go where we will, do as we will, nor seek our 
own pleasure in any way. Our motto is the motto of 
Kings, 'Noblesse Oblige/ " 

"Does that mean .that I ought to stay here and be stuffed 
until I am bilious?" asked the elephant who wasn't so 
stupid after all. 

The sacred white monkey nodded. 

"It's a hard thing for an elephant to be bilious, because 
there is so much of him to feel miserable," said Albino 
whose eyes were still smarting with the chillies. 

"It is harder on you than it is on me," allowed the 
monkey very politely, "for you see I am small enough to 
get a good deal of exercise even in this small place." 

"It isn't because you are small," corrected the elephant, 
"it's on account of being relation to folks. If I were any 
relation to those idiots who sing us to sleep and sing us 



"NOBLESSE OBLIGE" 79 

awake and stuff us with food more than sufficient for us, 
I might learn to endure it for the sake of family pride." 

'That isn't it," said the monkey, "I have shown you the 
divine way of looking at it." 

"I thought you said you were most human the other day," 
said the elephant winking one of his red eyes. 

"I meant the religious way of looking at it," said the 
monkey folding her shapely paws across her hairy chest, 
"I mean this motto, 'Noblesse oblige. 3 Doesn't it mean 
anything to you? You are thick skinned." 

The elephant didn't answer. 

The monkey went on: "Buddha, to whom these heathen 
pray, gave up all that he owned to help his fellow men." 

"Well, then," said the elephant, and not without reason, 
"why can't they give me up then?" 

"Because they need you to help them. That ought to 
make you willing to stay here. Now look at this matter 
from a common sense standpoint. You're here and you 
can't get away. Besides I've got you to live with. You 
seem sort of like a cousin to me, more than folks do 
even," owned the monkey wiping a tear from her homely 
face. 

The elephant caressed her with his long trunk. 

"We can't run away from our duty. That goes without 
saying. And if you don't learn to glorify the place nobody 
will ever think of you after you are dead." 

"Dead?" asked the elephant, "I'm in my prime. I'm 
but eighty years old. When I think of most a hundred 
years more of this adoration, I wish my days were as the 
grasshopper." 

"Albino, do not fear," answered the white monkey look- 



80 ANIMAL STORIES 

ing at him through her tears, "You will not have to live 
out so many years of this life because your health won't 
stand it. You will die young, but it will be a short life 
and a glorious one, for you will die a sacrifice to the nation 
which worships you." 

The elephant stood still for a long time, then he asked, 
"And you, how long can you live in this cage here?" 

"Not much longer," answered the sacred white monkey, 
"but I do not care. I am glad that I am one of those to 
whom it is given to do great things for others. I am more 
than willing to live up to my birth and position, for it is 
only as they are lived up to that they are worth having." 

"You are right," said the elephant, "but it is a hard thing 
to do." 

"The harder the more worth while," answered the 
monkey chattering in her usual cheerful voice, "I ought to 
know because I am a sort of relation to folks." 

" 'Noblesse oblige/ " said the elephant. 

" 'Noblesse oblige,' " answered the monkey. 



The Selfish Ostrich 

/^NCE upon a time there was a family of twelve ostrich 
chicks who lived with Mother and Father Ostrich in 
a part of South Africa known as "the Karroo/' 

Mother Ostrich wore a coat of soft gray while Father 
Ostrich wore a coat of shining black. Both of them had 
the most beautiful long, white feathers hanging from their 
wings and tails, the kind of feathers which are known the 
world over as "ostrich feathers." The chicks used to open 
their wide little mouths every time Mother and Father 
spread their wings, for the white plumes would float all 
around their bodies like a great white wreath. 

The chicks hadn't any pretty feathers yet. They wore 
homely, scrubby little coats of striped brown and gray and 
black, with a tiger-skin collar. The only pretty part of the 
chick is his neck which is a sort of striped plush. 

They were a happy family, for life on the farm was very 
pleasant. For the first three months they lived near the 
farm house because it was safer. The native boys used to 
watch over them and cut up prickly pear leaves and other 
greens to keep them from being hungry. A baby ostrich 
can't eat stones like an old ostrich. 

Mother and Father Ostrich were very careful all the time 
to see that the cross old ostriches kept away from their 
brood, because the old ostriches sometimes kill the little 
ones with one blow of their strong legs. 

Every morning Mother Ostrich would sit down in the 
sand and gather her chicks in a circle around her to teach 
them their lesson for the day. 

81 



82 ANIMAL STORIES 

One day she said to them, "do you know why you were 
put into this world ?" 

"How did we get here?" asked little Head-in-the-Sand, 
"I don't remember anything about that part of it." 




THEY WERE A HAPPY FAMILY! 

"You came out of a great big egg," said Mrs. Ostrich, 
"it was big enough to make a meal for a bushman's family." 

"Why didn't they eat the egg then?" asked Head-in-the- 
sand. "Did I come near not being hatched at all?" 

"You were not eaten before you were a chick because a 
chick is worth more to the world than an egg, even if it is 
big enough to feed a whole family. You were safe, be- 
cause you promised to be of value in the world." 



THE SELFISH OSTRICH 83 

"I broke the shell all to pieces when I came out, didn't 
I?" asked Head-in-the-Sand, "wasn't that too bad?" 

"No," said Mrs. Ostrich, "because the shell was of no 
value except as it kept you warm and cozy all those long 
weeks when your Father and I sat on you by night and 
by day." 

"But don't folks eat us sometimes?" asked Stone- 
Swallower, "I heard someone say that we tasted like 
'turkey' only we were tougher. What is a turkey, 
Mother?" 

"A turkey?" said Mrs. Ostrich, shutting up her large, soft 
eyes as if to think, "a turkey is a foreign bird who is always 
eaten up." 

"Oh, isn't that dreadful?" asked the little chicks looking 
very much frightened. "Will anybody eat us up, too ? We 
are so frightened when we think of the big fat cook with 
the black face." 

"You will not be eaten like a turkey, because you are of 
more use as you are. A turkey is of no use until he is 
dead and swimming in gravy." 

"O !" said the chicks, opening their mouths and drawing 
their scared little heads in a closer circle around their 
mother, "We are so glad that we are not turkeys !" 

"What are we worth to anybody?" asked Vain-Iittle- 
Ostrich who was always looking at his awkward little body 
whenever he could find a pan of water for a mirror. 
"When are we going to have beautiful plumes like yours 
and Father's?" 

"Your wings will grow by and by, if only you have pati- 
ence and do your best to become big and strong. At first 
you will have only scrubby feathers like quills, but by and 



84 ANIMAL STORIES 

by, when you are three years old, they will be almost as 
long as your Father's and mine are/' 

The chicks looked proudly at their mother. 

'Tour feathers will be well worth plucking then." 

"Plucking," asked Vain-little-Ostrich. "What's that?" 

"It means taking out the feathers from your wings and 
tail," answered Mrs. Ostrich proudly, "these feathers of 
ours are so beautiful that ladies all over the world will pay 
great prices to wear them in their hats and bonnets. Ladies 
who go to Court must wear them in their hair." 

"Well, if they keep us just because of our feathers, why 
do they keep old Feather-Boy that the children ride on 
sometimes around on the farm. He hasn't any feathers." 

"It is just as I was telling you," explained Mrs. Ostrich, 
"Feather-Boy is treated kindly now by the family because 
he once grew such long, white feathers for them that they 
called him by this beautiful name. Now that he is old 
and hasn't any feathers they are only too glad to be kind 
to him because of the use which he has been in the past." 

Mother Ostrich stopped talking right here, for it was 
time for luncheon. 

The months went by and then the years until the ostrich 
chicks wore plumes as beautiful as the ones they had 
admired on their mother and father. They were a little 
shorter, that was all the difference. 

Vain-little-Ostrich had grown such fine plumes and was 
so proud of them that his name had been changed to 
"Proud-of-his-Feathers." 

Plucking day was a sad one for this foolish bird, be- 
cause he had always lived for himself and had never 
had a thought beyond his own beauty. 



THE SELFISH OSTRICH S 5 

The ostriches were all driven into a fenced-in place at 
one end of which was the "plucking box," — a sort of closet 
with two doors, one of which opened into this enclosure and 
the other into another enclosure beyond it. 

"Proudy," as they called him for short, watched his 
friends with their floating plumes go into the box one by 
one and disappear. 

"I don't like that place," said Proudy. "When my turn 
comes, I shall kick and kick hard." 

And so he did with all his might, but one of the Kaffirs (a 
native) hit him such a blow with his tackey (a thorned 
stick) that for a minute he forgot that there was such a 
thing as feathers. 

Smarting and stinging, Proudy was hustled into the box 
which he found to be so small that it was no use for him to 
kick any more. There were two men, one on each side 
who broke off his plumes one by one until there were no 
more left. (Proudy didn't know it, but later on the 
Kaffirs would pull out all the stumps with their teeth.) 

After a few minutes the cross old bird found himself 
shoved into the next yard with the door of the plucking box 
closed behind him. 

It was a sad sight! Not an ostrich had a wing or a tail 
feather left. Among the sorry looking crowd he found his 
mother and father, but they were so changed that he 
hardly knew them. 

Proudy ran over to his mother as he used to do when 
he was a chick and tried to hide beside her. 

His mother rustled her bare wings as if she would try to 
comfort him, for that is the way a mother bird speaks. 

But Proudy gave a great loud roar that sounded like a 



86 ANIMAL STORIES 

lion, "My feathers, O, my beautiful feathers !" he cried in 
rage. 

The other birds all looked up. "I'm so ashamed/' said 
Proudy to himself, "I shall put my head in the sand and 
then nobody can see how homely I am." 

You children all know that an ostrich believes that if he 
can only cover his head nobody will ever see him. 

Mrs. Ostrich said, "Come, Proudy, show some sense and 
take your head out of the sand! Why are you so fright- 
ened? You didn't act this way when they took your 
chicken feathers off." 

"I didn't mind being hurt, and I wasn't scared," answered 
the unhappy ostrich, "but my feathers, my feathers! And 
just when they were so long and beautiful." 

"But didn't you know that that was the time for pluck- 
ing?" asked Mrs. Ostrich, smiling to herself. 

"But why couldn't they have left me just one feather 
when I had twenty-four in each wing and some more in 
my tail?" roared Proud-of-his-Feathers. 

Then he put his head down in the sand again. 

"Look up here," said his mother. 

"I wouldn't have cared so much, if they hadn't been so 
pretty," he roared again and again until all the rest of the 
eleven came running up in a circle to see what the matter 
was. They all stood around their mother as in the days 
when they took her lessons to heart. 

"We are all put here for a reason," she said, preaching 
a sermon on the same text as on that morning three years 
ago, "and the reason isn't to look handsome. That is a 
very small matter compared with being useful. We must 



THE SELFISH OSTRICH 87 

give our best to others, for it is demanded of us and we 
should do it cheerfully." 

Just then a beautiful bird with green feathers flew over- 
head. 

Proudy looked up and asked, "Why can't I keep my 
wings like that bird?" 

Mrs. Ostrich smiled, "perhaps that bird may not be able 
to keep himself, let alone his wings. Some cruel person 
may shoot him and then he will be stuffed and put on 
somebody's hat for the rest of his days. Be glad that 
your life is spared." 

"I could fly, couldn't I?" asked Proudy, still looking up, 
"if they would only let me keep my feathers until they are 
long enough?" 

"No, you could never fly," said his mother, "because 
you are what is known as a 'ground bird,' — you are too 
heavy to ever carry yourself into the air. You couldn't 
do it if you had all the feathers in Cape Town on your 
wings." 

"I wanted to stay handsome," Proudy grumbled on, "I 
wanted those plumes all for myself just when they were so 
pretty. I haven't anything left to think about." 

"I don't believe you have," said Mrs. Ostrich so much out 
of patience that she all but gave him a kick, "but whoever 
would have stopped to think about you if your plumes 
weren't taken off and carried all over the world? Perhaps 
one of those precious feathers you are crying for may be 
worn at the coronation of a king and queen. Who knows?" 

Proudy looked happy for just a minute, then he asked, 
"Will they let me keep my feathers for myself next year?" 

"No," said his mother. 



88 ANIMAL STORIES 

''Nor the year after that?" 

His mother shook her head. 

"Well," said Proudy, "I don't want to have to grow 
any more plumes as long as I live, if I have to let other 
people have them!" 

"Mother!" asked Stone-Swallower, as he struggled with 
a stone you could see winding around his skinny neck, 
"Mother, do you suppose that the little girl who comes 
down to the pen to feed us prickly pear leaves will ever 
wear any of my feathers in her hat? I like that little girl." 

Proudy looked up in a surprised way. 

"I am sure the little girl will wear ostrich feathers in her 
hat when she goes back to England because the farmer 
has promised her the finest ones that he can find to put on 
her Sunday hat." 

"She's a sweet little girl, isn't she, Mother?" asked 
Stone-Swallower, "she always gives me more leaves than 
she gives all the other birds put together. She is pretty, 
too, isn't she, Mother, with her blue eyes and yellow hair?" 

Mrs. Ostrich nodded her head as if to say "Yes." 

"Do you know, Mother," said Stone-Swallower looking 
very fine in spite of his bare wings and tail, "I like that 
little girl so much that I think I had rather have her wear 
my longest, prettiest plume than to wear it myself." 

Stone-Swallower's eyes grew very soft and tender as he 
said this. 

"It is a joy to be able to give one's best," answered Mrs. 
Ostrich, her own eyes growing very soft too, "and you have 
found it all out by caring more for the little girl's happiness 
than you do for your own." 

"Feelings are more than feathers," said Stone-Swallower 



THE SELFISH OSTRICH 89 

very cheerfully, "and I am just going to get to work to raise 
the finest plumes I can for that little girl next year. I 
want to be useful." 

There was another roar and Proudy was seen to whack 
his head against his hard body with blows that made the 
other ostriches pity him. 

"I want my feathers for myself," he cried again and 
again. 

"Poor old Proudy/' said Stone-Swallower, "he is just 
thinking about himself and forgetting all about the pretty 
little girl with the blue eyes and the yellow curls who will 
wear his plumes for him." 



Toaster 

f~\ NCE upon a time there was a big soft, gray, purry, 
pussy cat whose name was 'Toaster." 

Now Toaster was a town cat — all he knew about was 
roofs and fences and tiny back yards which weren't big 
enough to swing a cat in. He had never chased butterflies 
over fields of buttercups and daisies. 

But Toaster had the kitty cat's cubby house which was 
the most beautiful place in all the world — that is, for a 
town-cat. The kitty cat's cubby house was a balcony cut out 
of a second story room in such a way that it seemed like a 
big cave on the outside with plate-glass windows on the 
back. The front of the cubby house was almost hidden 
by an old grape vine which spread its big green branches 
out to make a beautiful screen for the kitty cats. Long 
green boxes filled with overhanging flowers and plants were 
just one mass of sweetness and beauty. In the centre of 
the cubby house was a big bunch of catnip hanging by a 
string from the ceiling. 

Now the place within was full of cats who knew that they 
had only to jump out of the windows onto the kitty cat's 
cubby house if they wanted to get down to the ground be- 
low. All they had to do was to climb over the grape vine 
up to a nearby roof and run along until they came to 
another vine farther on, from which they could drop to the 
ground. 

The lady who lived within the house was the lady 
Katharine, or the Lady Kitty, as every child in the neighbor- 
ed 



TOASTER 91 

hood called her. For all the little children used to go to 
see the kitty cat's cubby house. 

Toaster was one of the cats who lived in this happy place 
where life was all one purr from the time the milkman 
came in the morning until after the moon paled before the 
dawn. 

"Isn't the sun just beautiful?" purred Toaster to the 
rest of the family who were basking in the sun. "If it 
didn't most put my eyes out I'd climb to the top of that 
church steeple and jump up onto the sun and take a long, 
long nap. Maybe I'd never come down again — it would be 
so warm up there." 

"Maybe you wouldn't," purred a wise old cat blinking one 
eye at the rest of the family. 

"If I could be warm enough for only once!" meowed 
Toaster who was just as comfortable at that moment as any 
cat could be. But Toaster just couldn't get warm enough 
to please his catship. 

The wise old cat looked at him with a pucker in his fore- 
head. "You have as much and more than the sacred cats 
of Egypt to make you happy. What more do you want? 
A pyramid to climb? Why don't you begin to enjoy your- 
self now?" 

"Because you see I might be even warmer," meowed 
Toaster stretching his body to greater length to feel the 
warm rays of the sun on his great thick coat. 

"Heat is a good thing," said the wise old cat, "but you 
might get too much of it." 

"I couldn't," meowed Toaster shutting first one eye and 
then the other and opening his lazy mouth right in the wise 



92 



ANIMAL STORIES 



old cat's face, which isn't a polite thing for even a cat 
to do. 

"You make me tired," yawned Toaster rolling over com- 
fortably to take a cat-nap. 




1 ' ^^P^Nfc^-Rjj^c 

TOASTER WALKED SLOWLY ACROSS THE TABLE TO THE 
LIGHTED LAMP. 

"Well," smiled the wise old cat, "you'll have to get 
singed before you get sense." 

"The sun must be sick," thought Toaster as the green 
grapes on the old vine turned a rich black and the leaves 
in the long boxes a yellow-green. "It's time I looked out 
for other friends." 

"That big round thing indoors looks more like the sun 
than anything else I've seen." 



TOASTER 93 

That very night Toaster walked slowly across the table 
up to the lighted lamp. "It's lovely and warm," purred 
Toaster, ironing first one side and then the other of his 
thick, soft, furry, gray coat upon the round globe. 'There 
is only one trouble — I can't get warm on both sides at the 
same time." 

"There must be some place where I can be so warm I 
couldn't ask to be warmer," thought Toaster hugging his 
way round and round the lamp. "I'm going to find it if 
it takes me until I'm too old to run after the fishman." 

"This place is warm and comfortable," purred Toaster 
the next night cuddling down under the stove in the 
library where the growing plants and cushioned lounges 
made the kitty cats feel very much at home. "But even 
this isn't all that I could wish." 

"Why isn't it?" asked the wise old cat who lay snuggled 
up among the cushions on the lounge. 

"Because I know in my bones that it might be better," 
meowed Toaster, — "I can't purr until I am so warm that I 
couldn't be warmer." 

"H'm," answered the wise old cat with a grin, "You 
might get too warm for once." 

"I don't believe it," meowed Toaster. 

"Too much warm hurts just as much as too much cold," 
answered the wise old cat. 

"I know what I'll do," thought Toaster as soon as the 
rest of the kitty cats had closed one eye apiece and were 
beginning to close the other. "I'm going to see if I can't 
get inside of that stove and be warm enough for once. If 
the outside is so comfortable, what must the inside be? 
There's a door just big enough to let me in." 



94 ANIMAL STORIES 

Toaster waited until the other kitty cats were purring in 
their dreams of rats and mice swimming in rivers of cream 
Then he walked around softly on his velvets until he came 
to the front of the stove where the door hung partly open. 
"Oh, look, look, look," meowed Toaster, "It's all red and 
yellow inside; it hurts almost like the sun when you look 
at it." 

Toaster looked carefully around to see that none of the 
rest of the family were watching him because he wanted 
the stove all to himself. "The hour of all my life is come," 
he purred happily, "the hour for which I have waited 
ever since I was born. I fought for the bottom of the heap 
when I was a kitten, I've chased the sun around from one 
roof to the next, and I've most ironed my coat off on the 
lamp — but I've never been warm enough yet." 

Toaster put both his paws up at once to open wide the 
stove door. At the same time he poked his nose into the 
opening. 

"M-E-O-W! ! ! ! M-E-O-W! ! ! M-E-O-W! ! ! ! ! 
yowled Toaster dropping to the floor where he rolled back- 
wards and forwards with such howls that all the rest of 
the family woke up — both eyes at once. Toaster stopped 
his noise only long enough to put his blistered paws into his 
blistered mouth. 

"M-E-O-W!" yowled Toaster as he slowly hopped over 
to the cold window pane to ease his burning mouth. "It's 
hot! It's too hot!" meowed Toaster as he hopped along 
forgetting what he was saying before the wise old cac who 
was looking at him from among the cushions. 

"Til let you have the next mouse I catch becauso you 
aren't as young as you used to be," meowed Toaster to the 






TOASTER 95 

wise old cat who offered to lick his face for him. The wise 
old cat was kind as all wise people can afford to be. 

'Tm sorry you had to get singed to get sense," he said 
looking at the young cat, "but it is ever thus. There are 
many things no wise old cat can tell a young one. He must 
find out for himself that too much of a good thing may be 
a bad thing." 

That's all the great big soft, furry gray cat thought about 
until his nose and forepaws were well again. 



Pussy Purrer 

p USSY PURRER crawled slowly along the edge of the 
wet roof looking for some little corner to "dry out" in. 
The clouds were still crying big drops of rain upon his 
rusty coat. 

"If anybody hates water worse than a cat it must 
be another cat," thought Pussy Purrer to himself as he 
looked around for a dry spot to hide in. Even the place 
by the chimney was soaked. 

"It's hard to keep on purring when you're cold and 
hungry, too, but I'm not going to stop, because my dear 
mother used to say to me, 'Pussy, purr, and keep on purring 
no matter what happens: then something will happen to 
purr for, everything comes to the cat who purrs/ ' 

"Mother used to say it was just as easy to purr as it 
was to growl if only you got your purring machine to run- 
ning well. Hello! What can this be?" meowed Purrer 
looking at a wide open window in the house next door. 
"Let me see — I ought to know every roof in the neighbor- 
hood by this time. This is the other side of the house 
where the pussy cats have such a good time. The lady 
who lives here never goes off to the country and leaves 
them to look after themselves. Lucky cats! I wonder 
what the country is. Mother used to say it was a place 
which made a respectable cat a tramp three months out of 
the year. 

'Tve been taking my meals out now until I've learned 
how to get the cover off of every kind of a 'tin-pig' that 
any other self-supporting cat can. (My mother always 

96 



PUSSY PURRER 



97 



to call the bucket with the 

overs' in it the 'tin-pig.') 

The underground kind were 

never made by any friend 

of ours. Times are 

growing hard even for 

cats." 

Pussy Purrer leaned 
over to take a long look. 
"I think I'll give a good 
big jump right down into 
the room/' thought 
Pussy, getting ready for 
a long spring from the 
wet roof to the open 
window. 

Pussy Purrer landed 
"thump" on all four wet 
paws upon the thick 
warm carpet. "Let me 
see," he said looking 
around him with both 
eyes wide open, "the 
thing which suits me best 
is that soft white bed 
over in the corner. I'm 
_ ~ going to curl up in that 
s^^€:>Ruce big puffy quilt down at 
the foot of the bed. I 
"growly," said lady kitty .wonder how many birds' 

TAKING PURRER RIGHT INTO r aU .. . « , ^ on 

her \rms feathers it took to stuff 




98 ANIMAL STORIES 

this thing. The family must be very fond of birds." 
Purrer dried his wet coat by rolling slowly up and down 
the clean white counterpane. Then he curled up like a 
ball and went to sleep to dream that he was a little kitten 
once more all cuddled in his mother's big soft paws. 

■£ •£ :$ 

It was late when the Lady Kitty came in to close the 
window and draw the curtains. Then she lighted a beauti- 
ful little lamp with a rosy shade. 

Purrer sat right up in the middle of the bed and looked 
at the Lady. "Purr, purr, purr," he said, trying very hard 
to purr right out loud although he was so frightened he 
wanted to hide under a chair. 

The Lady Kitty smiled at Purrer just as if she had always 
known him. But she didn't know his name because she 
called him "Growly" — which isn't a pretty name for any 
pussy cat. 

"Growly," said the Lady rubbing his fur the right way, 
"I'm glad to hear you purr: it's about time you began to 
be pleasant." 

"I wonder if it wouldn't be better for me to try to get 
out of here," thought Purrer. "Why does she call me 
'Growly,' I wonder? I don't like it." 

"Growly," said the Lady Kitty, taking Purrer right into 
her arms, "poor old Growly, what makes you purr so beauti- 
fully when your coat is all wet and rough? How did you 
happen to get caught out in the rain?" 

"Purr, purr, purr," answered Pussy Purrer with his soft 
face nestling beneath the Lady Kitty's chin. 

"Wait a minute, Growly," said the Lady Kitty, "I'm going 
to get you a saucer of milk." 



PUSSY PURRER 99 

"Purr, purr, purr," answered Pussy Purrer who hadn't 
so much as had one lick at a milk bottle since his family 
went to the country. 

In a few minutes the Lady Kitty came back with the 
warm milk in a clean, white saucer. "Poor Growly, poor 
old Pussy — all wet and cold. I don't want you to get sick 
now that you are beginning to be so polite to me." 

Pussy Purrer knew that some mistake had been made. 
He looked at the lady — then he looked at the milk. 

"Poor, wet Pussy, don't wait until the milk is all cold," 
coaxed the lady, gently putting Purrer's nose right into the 
saucer. 

Purrer put out his pink tongue and lapped the fresh warm 
milk up as fast as he knew how. 

"Poor Growly, you are hungry," said the Lady Kitty, "I'll 
get you another saucer of milk and a piece of fish." 

"Purr, purr, purr," answered Purrer, licking his chops. 
"This must be Friday — that's the cat's lucky day." 

Pussy Purrer ate his fish as politely as he knew how after 
months of standing on the narrow edge of a little "tin-pig." 
"Purr, purr, purr," said Pussy Purrer so loud that you could 
hear his voice above the crunching of his teeth. 

"You're better than a Bilikin," said the Lady Kitty, "be- 
cause you smile out loud. I'm going to let you stay in here 
and sing me to sleep. That's right. Jump right up into 
the eiderdown." 

"Purr,purr, purr," sang Pussy Purrer with blinking eyes 
as he curled his tail around him and went fast to sleep. 

Next morning Pussy Purrer sang right out loud into the 
Lady Kitty's ear. "Purr, purr, purr," he said beginning 



ioo ANIMAL STORIES 

very, very softly and singing louder and louder until he 
sounded like a sawmill all by himself. 

Pussy Purrer heard a low "gr-gr-r-o-w-1, m-e-o-w, 
m-e-o-w, spitzz!" and there stood another cat who looked 
enough like Purrer to be his twin brother. "-What are you 
doing in my place ?" he asked in cat language. 

Pussy Purrer stopped purring only long enough to an- 
swer politely, "I jumped in the window last night to get 
out of the rain. My family are away for the summer." 

'The Lady Kitty will know that she has made a mistake 
when she sees the two of us together. Maybe you didn't 
know that she kept you here because you look like me. 
She took you for me — her own pet cat. That's the only 
reason you weren't turned out of doors." 

Purrer wanted to get away and hide under a chair, but 
in came Lady Kitty and took him right up into her soft, 
white arms, "You lovely, lovely purry pussy cat," she 
cried," why have you kept this beautiful purr inside of you 
all this time? Naughty Growly." 

"M-e-o-w!" cried Growly, coming from behind a chair 
and jumping up into the lady's arms, too. 

"Why! Growly! Are there two of you? You dear little 
new pussy you. To think I thought all the time that my 
cross old Growly had learned to purr like that in a day. I 
ought to have had more sense." 

Pussy Purrer sounded like a whole sawmill all at once 
as he cuddled under the Lady Kitty's soft round chin. 

"Pussy, your family went away and left you, didn't 
they? and you kept on purring when you were wet and 
cold and hungry." 



PUSSY PURRER 101 

"Purr, purr, purr," said Pussy Purrer so loudly you could 
hear him in the next room. 

"Your family left you — now you can leave your family. 
I'm going to keep you here to sing me asleep and sing me 
awake. I want you for my 'Biliken' ; you purry pussy cat 
you!" 

"M-e-o-w y m-e-o-w! spitzzzzzzz. It pays to purr; I think 
Til learn." 

"Purr, purr, purr," sang Pussy Purrer cuddling down in 
the soft eiderdown where he had found a home. 



The Caterpillar and the Butterfly 

/^\NCE upon a time there was a caterpillar who didn't 
like to be a caterpillar at all; he wanted everybody 
to love him, — but of course nobody did except the other 
caterpillars. They didn't count. 

The plants in the garden used to shake with fright when 
he crawled up their stalks to nibble off the green leaves 
above. 

But the little girl in the garden screamed right out loud 
when he tried to climb up one of her stalks which was 
covered with a thick, wooly fibre. 

"She looked so sweet that I wanted to eat her," sighed 
the poor worm as he lay on the ground where she had 
thrown him in her fright. 

"Oh, dear," said the Caterpillar, hiding his head in the 
dust for very shame — /'it's hard to be only a caterpillar! 
Look at that big black butterfly with the yellow spots on 
her over by my parsley bed. The little girl is chasing her 
and she is running away from the little girl. It's the same 
little girl who gave me this throw down." 

A tear fell from the Caterpillar's eyes — for a Cater- 
pillar has feelings, even if he is squashy and hasn't any 
bones. 

"I wonder why it is," he questioned within himself, "that 
I have always wanted to be a butterfly. I've dreamed of 
being one until I think I must be — , when I'm asleep." 

Just then the Butterfly flew merrily overhead and alighted 
on a rosebush with both her wings held straight up over 
her small body. The little girl looked right at her and 

1 02 




THE BUTTERFLY LOVINGLY KISSED A BIG PINK ROSE. 

I03 



104 ANIMAL STORIES 

didn't know it, because the beautiful wings folded up inside 
out. 

"Hello," called out the Butterfly, looking down at the 
Caterpillar, "it's a fine day for hide-and-seek; the trees are 
green, the sky is blue and — what is the matter?" 

"There's nothing the matter with the day" sighed the 
Caterpillar, "the matter is with me, — I haven't any wings." 

"Cheer up, you will have sometime," said the Butterfly, 
as she lovingly kissed a big pink rose. 

"But how do I know that I shall have a pair of wings? 
I don't see them floating round here anywhere," snapped 
the Caterpillar who felt ugly enough to bore his way 
through the bark of a tree. 

"Well," asked the Butterfly, "what's to keep you from 
spinning a cocoon the next time you shed that spotted, 
striped coat of yours? All you've got to do is to go to sleep 
and forget all about it; then before you know it, you'll 
wake up with wings." 

"How do you know I will?" asked the Caterpillar. 

"That's the way I got my wings," said the Butterfly 
fluttering in the breeze. 

"How do you know I'll get mine? 'Seeing is believing' 
with me." 

The Butterfly thought for a minute. "Do you know if the 
sun will rise tomorrow morning?" she finallv asked as if 
this were the most natural question in the world. 

"Of course it will," answered the Caterpillar who thought 
that the Butterfly must be very stupid to have any doubts 
about the matter. 

"You really don't know that the sun will rise tomorrow 
morning; you only take it for granted because you have 



THE CATERPILLAR AND THE BUTTERFLY 105 

seen it rise every morning so far," contradicted the Butter- 
fly. 

"H'm!" said the Caterpillar who had sense enough to 
see that she was talking over his head in more ways than 
one. "H'm! I don't know that I care to argue the matter." 
The unhappy creature turned his back and slowly crawled 
up a thick waving grass that looked as if a first cousin of 
his own were growing on the top of it. 

"You used to be an egg once/' continued the Butterfly 
who didn't care if the worm had turned. 

'Don't remind me of the past," retorted the Caterpillar, 
who despised small beginnings. 

"Then you hatched;" went on the Butterfly — "after that 
you got out of your baby clothes." 

"I had to," said the Caterpillar. "They were so tight 
that they just split right up the middle of the back." 

"You've had more than one new suit since," said the 
Butterfly who had watched him making the changes. 

"That is nothing," said the Caterpillar, "for it is happen- 
ing all the time." 

"Well, if you can get one new suit, why don't you be- 
lieve that you can get another?" asked the Butterfly. "The 
fact that it will need a bit more trimming on it needn't make 
any difference. It's just as easy for the Lord to make you 
a pair of wings when you shall have need of them as it is 
for Him to make you a new coat when you have need of 
it." 

"I wish I could believe that," said the Caterpillar who be- 
gan to think the Butterfly wasn't so stupid after all. 

"You are just going through a stage in your existence.'' 



io6 ANIMAL STORIES 

began the Butterfly as if she were trying to remember 
something long forgotten. 

"What's that?" cut in the Caterpillar. 

"I heard the man who chased me with a net talking about 
it while I was hiding under a leaf. He said there was the 
egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis and the butterfly. ,, 

"It's hard work getting your wings," groaned the Cater- 
pillar who was thinking of all that he had to go through 
before he got there. 

"Wait a minute, Crawler," said the Butterfly, alighting 
on the grass blade and whispering into one of the many 
ears on her friend's right side: "I will tell you a secret. 
Folks are waiting for wings, too! Their skins don't fall 
off: they only stretch. It hurts very much and they call 
it 'growing pains.' Besides this, they have bones on their 
insides and bones always ache. Folks feel a great many 
things in their bones." 

"That little girl was the kind of animal you call 'folks/ 
wasn't she?" asked the Caterpillar, who didn't feel so sore 
now that he knew there was trouble enough for every living 
thing to get a share. 

"Yes, she was 'folks,' or one of them," said the Butter- 
fly. "She will keep on growing until bye and bye she will 
go into a long, deep sleep from which she will awaken with 
wings like the angels." 

"Is an angel a kind of bird?" asked the Caterpillar who 
was always bound to find out everything there was to be 
known. 

"I don't know," answered the Butterfly who knew that 
there were some things beyond her. 



THE CATERPILLAR AND THE BUTTERFLY 107 

"I had heard of birds of Paradise and I thought per- 
haps — " 

"You don't know anything about it," cut in the Butterfly. 
"All that I can tell you about it is that they wear some- 
thing they call the flesh while they're here on earth. The 
flesh is what keeps folks crawling on the earth when their 
spirits would like to fly just like the angels. The spirit is 
'the-want-to-fly' in them. I know all about it, Crawler, be- 
cause I sat on the altar bouquet one Sunday and 
heard the man up in the pulpit tell the people that they 
were but worms grovelling here below. If they weren't 
worms of some kind, they'd get up and say so." 

"I didn't know folks had trials like mine," said the 
Caterpillar who was beginning to find out a thing or two. 

"I found out from the man who did the talking that the 
flesh is only a stage in their existence, as he called it. 
There are a great many things a human being has to go 
through before wing-time. He talked a great deal about 
you and me and told the people that they must expect to 
go through the same experience, too. He said that a 
Butterfly must always have been a Caterpillar first." 

"I wish I had heard him myself," said the Caterpillar. 

"So do I," said the Butterfly. "But, Crawler, to get down 
to what I've been trying to get at the last hour, I think it's 
about time you slipped off that skin of yours and made up 
your mind to spin a cocoon." 

"How do I know I'll ever come out of it?" asked the 
Caterpillar. 

"By trying it," said the Butterfly. "All you have to do 
is to swing yourself up 'long side a twig, and — get out of 
your old coat and spin a soft brown blanket to go to sleep 



108 ANIMAL STORIES r 

in. You'll sleep all your worry off and wake up to find 
your wings before long." 

"I will do as you say;" said the Caterpillar, "only I have 
nothing but hope — " 

"Hope!" exclaimed the Butterfly. "Nothing but 'hope'! 
If you must know the truth, hope is all that folks have to 
live by, too." 

'Til do my best — and hope," said the Caterpillar, as the 
Butterfly spread out her great black velvet wings with the 
golden spots and floated into the air. 

Then the Caterpillar slowly made his way up to the 
garden wall where he hung himself onto a twig and began 
very carefully to take off his old coat with the stripes on 
it. After a while he spun himself a brown silk blanket 
in which he wrapped himself for a long, long sleep. 



A "Proud Cat" Story 

r< HRYSANTHEMUM ANGORA lay snuggled up in the 
bow-window among the baby orange-trees and rubber 
plants. The hanging baskets swung gently overhead. 

All that anyone could see of Chrysanthemum Angora 
was a fluffy, puffy, yellow ball almost hidden under a yel- 
low satin bow. 

Chrysanthemum Angora pricked up her ears as she lis- 
tened to a tiny rustling sound in the branches that over- 
hung the house. 

"It is my poor neighbor. Cracker Gray," she meowed 
to herself. '"Just see him sliding along from branch to 
branch quicker than any of my poor cousins, those com- 
mon cats. See him spread his bushy tail and come down 
ker-tlop upon the piazza as if he had nine lives and one to 
spare. Now he's jumping right up into my window sill!" 

"Spitzzzzzzl" scolded Chrysanthemum Angora like a 
whole soda water fountain all at once as she dug her claws 
into the carpet. "I don't see why my family have to put 
out peanuts and shell-barks and even' other old kind of 
nut for that squirrel just as if he belonged here." she fret- 
ted in Pussy Cat language. 

Cracker Gray jumped upon the window sill and picked 
up a nut talking pleasantly to himself all the while. 

"There are more nuts than I can eat," he chattered 
smiling to the tips of his long whiskers. "Aren't the peo- 
ple in this house good to me? There are nuts enough to 
cam' some back to my hole." Cracker seated himself 

109 



no 



ANIMAL STORIES 



prettily on his haunches, curling his big fluffy tail grace- 
fully up over his back to keep warm. 

"Just see Cracker Gray holding the nuts in both paws 
and opening the shells with his teeth," meowed Chrysan- 
themum looking out the window at the happy little fellow. 




CRACKEK GRAY JUMPED UP ON THE WINDOW SILL AND 
PICKED UP A NUT. 



"What's that animal on the warm side of the window?" 
chattered Cracker looking at Chrysanthemum whose eyes 
followed every motion of his long whiskers. "It's a pussy 
cat with too much hair and temper," he added as he 
whisked away a shell. 

"M-e-o-w! M-e-o-w!" said Chrysanthemum aloud to 
the baby-orange trees and the rubber plants. 

"Chrr, Chrr, Chrr" answered Cracker cheerfully as he 
ate the good meat inside the hard shells. 



A "PROUD CAT" STORY m 

Chrysanthemum pressed her fore-paws up against the 
windowpane. Then she flattened her nose against the 
glass. "What are you doing here?" she meowed. "You're 
an outsider." 

"I know it," chrred Cracker, trying not to care, although 
it hurt his little feelings very much. 

"I am the pet of the family and I don't want any other 
animals coming up here to be fed," scolded Chrysanthe- 
mum with a look which the poorest tramp cat would be 
ashamed to give a barbed wire fence. 

"You may have half of my nuts if they don't give you 
enough to eat," answered Cracker politely. "I'm not a 
red squirrel. I wouldn't steal your nuts." 

"I don't want your old nuts any more than I want you," 
spat out Chrysanthemum Angora who lived on fried liver 
and salmon every day and twice on Friday. 

"You mean you don't want me here at all, even if I 
don't take your dinner away from you?" asked Cracker in 
surprise. He could hardly believe another animal could 
treat him so. 

"That's just what I do mean," meowed Chrysanthe- 
mum, showing every one of her fine white teeth and rais- 
ing her back until she looked like a crook-neck squash. 

Cracker stopped chrring. The nuts seemed to choke 
him. Then he whisked his tail around to hide his face 
away from the yellow pussy cat with the big yellow satin 
bow who sat among the baby orange trees and the rubber 
plants with the hanging baskets overhead. 

"There is no cold world outside where you must go 
hungry. It is always summer for you," said Cracker 
Gray sadly looking within the flower-filled room. 



ii2 ANIMAL STORIES 

'.What did you expect? I'm no common cat, I'd have 
you to know," hissed the yellow beauty. 

"You're afraid I'll be trying to get inside before you 
know it," said Cracker Gray who wasn't at all stupid. 

Chrysanthemum didn't answer; she only kept looking 
at Cracker in a way that made the world inside look very 
much warmer and the world outside look very much 
colder. 

"I wouldn't like it any more than you would," chrred 
Cracker with a proud little turn of his saucy head. "I 
have my own kind of a life to live." 

"Spitzz!" spat Chrysanthemum. 

"It wouldn't hurt you any to be kind to me and the 
nuts would be ever so much sweeter," pleaded Cracker 
with the saddest little squirrel smile. 

Chrysanthemum's only answer was to turn slowly 
around until all that Cracker could see was her fluffy, 
puffy, yellow back turned toward him. 

"It would be wrong for me not to take these nuts. I 
need them," said Cracker Gray as he filled his teeth up 
as full as any little squirrel could. "But somehow I feel 
as if they would choke me now." 

Cracker Gray carried a very heavy little heart with him 
over the branch road home to his hole. "That rich cat 
is poorer than her poor neighbors if she can't be happy 
unless they're miserable. I'd rather have to go out and 
hustle for my living than be like that proud cat," said 
Cracker Gray as he hid away the nuts he had brought 
from the house where Chrysanthemum Angora lay curled 
up on a velvet cushion among the baby orange trees and 
the rubber plants. 



A Tramp Cat 



/^\NCE upon a time there was a poor, skinny, little toiv 
toise shell pussy cat who lived all alone in the loft 
of an old tumbled-down barn. 

He was known in Catville as "Tramp," that was all. 
"Mouser Smith" and "Puny Brown" and "Pet Jones" all 
had two names because they belonged to somebody who 
let them in and let them out and fed them for only so 
much as a word — and that word was "M-e-o-w" ! 

"I don't mind being called 'Tramp' so much," said the 
poor little bunch of yellow and white and black fur. "It's 
not having any other name that hurts. Besides," here 
Tramp slunk to the ground for very shame, "they say my 
fur coat is nothing but patchwork." 

Poor Tramp had watched beside a rat hole in the barn 
floor all through the long, dark night. He was so hungry 
that he sat with his eyes glued to the hole as still as a 
china cat on the mantelpiece. But it wasn't any use. 
The rats just scurried 'round on their side of the wall and 
laughed at him. 

"The sun is up. I must have meat. What shall I do?" 
meowed Tramp piteously to himself. 

"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Flap! Flap! Flap!" came the 
answer overhead. 

"The birds are awake and calling me," purred Tramp 
climbing up the wistaria vine quicker than "scat." 

"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!" sang a plump little brown spar- 
row as he flew straight down onto the barn roof. 

113 



ii 4 ANIMAL STORIES 

"Hop! Hop! Hop!" went the plump little brown spar- 
row across the mossy old shingles. 

Tramp drew his poor thin little body together and gave 
one big spring like "Jack" when he comes out of his box. 

"Flap! Flap! Flap!" went the plump little brown spar- 
row's wings as they carried her up, up, up — far above 
Tramp's hungry jaws. 

Then the whole sparrow family began to scold in such 
loud, shrill voices that Tramp slunk out of sight under the 
eaves where he could see all around the neighborhood 
without being seen. 

"Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!" called a voice on two legs 




TWO LAPS TO PET'S ONE. 

over at Mouser Smith's house. "Hurry up and get your 
breakfast." Tramp saw Mouser Smith go trotting up as 
if he thought he had a right to all the chop bones and grid- 
dle cakes the Smith family didn't want — for wasn't he 
their cat and weren't they his family? 

"Pussy, Pussy, Pussy!" called a voice on two legs at 
Purry Brown's house. "Come here and get your break- 
fast!" Tramp saw Purry Brown go trotting up as if she 
knew how useful she were to help the family get rid of 
the left-overs. 



A TRAMP CAT .15 

"Puss, Puss, Puss!" called a voice on two legs over at 
Pet Jones' house. "Hurry, Pet, drink your milk before it 
is cold." 

"Milk! And warmed, too!" cried Tramp scrambling 
down out of his hiding-place and making a bee line for 
the Jones' back yard. 

He didn't wait to be asked. He just helped himself — 
two laps to Pet's one until their noses met in the bottom 
of the empty bowl. 

"My, but you're a lucky cat to have a breakfast like this 
brought to you," said Tramp licking his chops carefully for 
the third time. 

"Oh, this isn't anything more than I expected. I have it 
every day," answered Pet easily. 

"Where do you sleep?" asked Tramp, looking up pite- 
ously at the back windows full of blooming geraniums. 

"I have a cushion in the rocker by the kitchen stove," 
answered Pet. 

"My, but you're a lucky cat to have a place like that 
to put your head into on a cold night." 

"Oh, well, it isn't any more than I expect. I have al- 
ways slept by the kitchen fire. In fact, I was born there," 
added Pet as if it were all a matter of course. 

"I haven't any home. I live all alone in an old tum- 
bled-down barn," meowed Tramp piteously as he looked 
at the lucky pussy cat before him. 

"Who feeds you?" asked Pet wonderingly. 

"Why, I feed myself, of course," answered Tramp. 
"There are plenty of rats and mice around if you are lively 
enough to catch them." 

Pet looked very sorry for Tramp as she sat with all 



n 6 ANIMAL STORIES 

four feet daintily drawn together within the circle of her 
tail. Her head was thrown back so that Tramp could see 
the red-leather collar around her neck. The writing on it 
spelled "Pet Jones." 

"You are a lucky cat," Tramp repeated thinking sadly 
of himself all the while. 

"I don't see why," answered Pet. "I haven't any more 
than I always have had." 

"You have always had someone to love you," said 
Tramp, "and I hope you always will — because you gave 
me some of your nice warm milk. But I can tell you one 
thing, Pet Jones, and it's as true as I'm a cat — you'll never 
know how much folks do for you until they stop doing it." 



"Lambie" 
A Story for "Children's Day" 

/^NCE upon a time there was a little white woolly 
lamb whom the children called "The lambie without 
a mamma." 

Lambie lived in a tiny house of his own — a cunning 
little place with a peaked roof, a front door, a brick chim- 
ney and a wired-in piazza. Lambie could lie out on the 
grass when the sun was shining and drink his dinner out 
of the bottle the children brought him from Old Mother 
Cow who fed the children, too. 

Lambie learned to love the little boy and girl whom he 
followed around just like a puppy dog. 

It was a beautiful June morning; the fields were gold 
and white with buttercups and daisies — the "children's 
flowers" knew it was "Children's Day" down in the village 
church. 

Lambie knew it, too, for the children had washed him 
sweet and clean and hung a wreath of daisies around his 
pure white neck. 

"I don't see why they couldn't take me with them," 
ba-ba-ed Lambie. "I'm just as white and clean as they 
are and I'm wearing a wreath of daisies on my head." 
"I'm going to follow them," said Lambie, skipping round on 
his awkward legs. 

So Lambie skipped and frisked and gambolled down 
the lane, nibbling the tender grass upon the way. 

"I'm glad that noise has stopped," thought Lambie look- 

117 



n8 



ANIMAL STORIES 



ing up at the village steeple where the old bell lay hidden. 
Then he climbed slowly up the steps and looked within. 

"The children must love this place because they have 
brought out-of-doors into it. There are my buttercups 




BA-BA,° BLEATED LAMBIE AS HE LAY DOWN AT HIS LIT- 
TLE GIRL'S FEET. 



"LAMBIE" 119 

and daisies, big long chains of them. The children must 
love this place. I'm going to follow them and see why. 

"They are all singing and marching around ! Now they're 
sitting down! My little girl is standing up and saying 
something! She must be calling me." 

Lambie called "ba-ba" and went skipping up the aisle 
until he stood in the beautiful place. 

"O! O! O!" whispered the children very softly, "the 
little lamb knows it's 'Children's Day' — just see his daisy 
wreath." 

"Ba-ba!" bleated Lambie as he lay down at his little 
girl's feet among the buttercups and daisies of the fields 
he loved so well, "the children who live here must love 
little lambs." 

"Isn't he dear?" asked the children "And so good. 
He seems to belong here." 

"I'm glad I came in here," ba-ba-ed Lambie softly to 
himself, "it's just like home." 

Then Lambie was as good as any little lamb can be, 
for he hid his head behind the buttercups and daisies and 
went fast to sleep. 



Making Friends While the Sun Shines 

/^vNCE upon a time there were three white rabbits with 
ruby eyes, pink-lined ears and downy little cotton- 
tails just like three little "powder puffs." 

They slept in a "hutch," which is only another name 
for a rabbit-house, and played out in the garden that had 
a wire fence around it. 

"This green hash and this lettuce the children bring to 
us is very good," said Bunny White with his soft wiggley 
nose buried in the wires, "but I want to go out and help 
myself to 'greens.' " 

"But how are we to get out?" asked Ruby Eyes. 

"We can scratch our way out," answered Long Ears. 
"Why didn't we ever think of it before?" 

The three little rabbits went to work until they had 
made a hole big enough for one little rabbit to get out. 
(And that you know, children, is a hole big enough for 
all the little rabbits in the world to get out of, one by one.) 

Bunny White hopped through; Ruby Eyes and Long 
Ears followed after. 

Bunny White led the way out into the garden-patch 
where all was green and beautiful. Lettuce, cabbage, 
parsley, radishes and beets stood in straight rows just 
waiting for three hungry little Bunnies. 

"Did you know," asked Bunny White, "that the family 
have gone away and left us to scratch for ourselves? 
They said the garden ought to 'keep us.' " 

The three Bunnies were just as happy as the summer 
days were long until the garden began to grow very dry. 

120 



MAKING FRIENDS WHILE THE SUN SHINES 121 

"Let's go to the garden upon the hill; they have rain 
up there all the time in a rubber tube.'' 

So the three began taking their meals out. "Eat as fast 
as you can and run," ordered Bunny White three times 
a day. "But if you are caught put a pleasant face on it." 

Now the heads of lettuce told the Lady of the Garden 
about the visits of the Bunnies. 

"Here, Bunny, Bunny, Bunny," called the Lady softly 
holding out a lettuce-heart. 




Jo s5.PH.iN. <>TE>Xu C (L 



"THEY SAID THE GARDEN OUGHT TO KEEP US." 



"We're caught!" cried Ruby Eyes and Long Ears as they 
scooted home in long circles across lots. 

Bunny White's heart went pit-a-pat out loud, but he 
looked up at the lady as bravely as a frightened rabbit 
could. 

"It is a hand to feed me," thought Bunny, "the first one 
since the children went away and left us the garden to 
play in." 

Bunny White came just a bit closer until his twitching 



122 ANIMAL STORIES 

nose almost touched the dainty lettuce-leaves. Then he 
scooted after the other two Bunnies. 

"Why did you stop for the lady?" asked Long Ears. 
"Couldn't you get all the lettuce you wanted out of her 
garden without making friends?" 

"I suppose I could," panted Bunny White, "but you see 
I was ashamed to do it." 

Bunny White came just a little closer to the Lady of 
the garden each day until at last he cuddled in her arms 
as lovingly as a lonesome little Bunny knows how to 
cuddle. 

The days grew colder and colder, the wind howled louder 
and louder — the lettuce-leaves grew black and stiff. 

"O, Bunny White," said Long Ears and Ruby Eyes, "we 
think it is time we made friends with the Lady of the Gar- 
den now. She has green lettuce, plenty of it — left in a 
little glass house where she keeps the summer in." 

"I don't know about that," answered Bunny White with 
a sad little twitch of his nose; "you see you didn't take any 
notice of her kindness in the summer time." 

"Bunny, Bunny, Bunny," called the Lady of the Garden, 
taking him up in her arms. Long Ears and Bright Eyes 
came boldly up. 

"Scoot!" cried the Lady. "I won't have any strange 
rabbits around my green house." 

"Come, Bunny," said the Lady carrying him into the 
little glass house where it was still summer, "help your- 
self." 

"Oh, weren't we stupid little Bunnies?" wept the two sad 
rabbits. 

"Can't we go back and be polite now? We shall be 



MAKING FRIENDS WHILE THE SUN SHINES 123 

very hungry this winter, I am afraid," sobbed Bright Eyes. 
"It's too late, too late!" answered Long Ears while his 
nose moved faster than moving-pictures. "The only time 
to make friends is when you don't need them." 



Proud-Cat and Cuddle- Kit 

/^NCE upon a time there were two little kittens by the 
name of Proud-Cat and Cuddle-Kit who belonged to 
old Mother Cat. 

Proud-Cat walked grandly round in a coat of the longest, 
thickest, shiniest fur with gorgeous yellow patches all over 
it while Cuddle-Kit trotted modestly about in a coat of 
short, black common-cat fur. 

"Just to look at me is enough," said Proud-Cat looking 
very unkindly at his plain sister. "I suppose that I would 
be obliged to put myself out to make folks like me if I 
were as homely as you are." 

Cuddle-Kit went meowing back to Mother-Cat as all 
good little kittens do. 

"O, Mother dear," cried Cuddle-Kit, "why didn't you 
find me a plush coat with yellow spots on it like Proud- 
Cat's so that everybody would be glad to look at me?" 

"Kitten-mine," purred Mother-Cat licking the puckery 
nose and mouth that looked so sorry for itself, "God made 
this plain black coat for Cuddle-Kit to wear just as truly 
as He made the beautiful coat for Brother." 

"But why didn't He make me a coat like Proud-Cat's?" 
asked Cuddle-Kit with her head under Mother-Cat's chin. 

"You have something more beautiful than Brother's 
coat," answered Mother-Cat licking the tips of the droop- 
ing ears. 

"What is it?" asked the kitten opening big round eyes. 
"I have never seen it and I wash myself all over every 
day." 

124 



PROUD-CAT AND CUDDLE-KIT 



125 



"You can't see it, kitten-mine/' smiled Mother-Cat, "for 
it is something 'way inside of you. Folks call it your 'dis- 
position/ " 

"Hasn't Proud-Cat one, too?" asked little sister won- 
deringly. 

"Every cat has a 'disposition' of some kind; Proud- 
Cat's is not a beautiful one," answered Mother-Cat hang- 
ing her head for very shame. 

"It isn't like his coat, is it?" asked Cuddle-Kit. 

Mother-Cat smiled. 

"But no one knows about my 'disposition'; I'd rather 
have a beautiful coat for everybody to see." 

"Folks can't help seeing your 'disposition,' " answered 
Mother-Cat. "It's in your meow and your purr; your 
teeth and your claws; and in the middle of your back." 




PROUD-CAT WALKED GRANDLY BACK AND FORTH. 



Proud-Cat walked grandly back and forth between the 
velvet cushion and the corner of the dining room where he 
ate fried liver from a dainty plate. 

"I am so handsome that folks are very lucky to have a 



126 ANIMAL STORIES 

chance to feed me," he purred happily to Cuddle-Kit who 
always put her paws up on the cook's gingham apron to 
say ''thank you" after each meal. "I don't need to climb 
up into any one's lap to be petted; every one leans down 
to pat me" exclaimed Proud-Cat as he licked his chops. 

"Mother says you have beauty, too — but that it's all on 
the inside. It must be very stupid to paw around after 
folks and purr alongside of them and keep your spitzzy 
feelings inside instead of outside." 

Cuddle-Kit slowly blinked her left eye. 

"I can afford to be cross," the contented voice went on. 
"I never go out of my way not even for the COOK!" 

And Proud-Cat didn't, although the Cook was carrying 
a pot of boiling water from the stove. 

It is all too sad to tell. Proud-Cat wouldn't get out 
of the way for the Cook, so the Cook had to get out of the 
way for Proud-Cat. 

"M-e-o-w-w-w-w!!!" yeowled Proud-Cat as the Cook 
fell upon him, boiling water and all. 

The Cook limped slowly to a chair while Proud-Cat 
threw himself around the room in an agony of pain. 

Nothing could help poor Proud-Cat then — not all the 
vaseline in the big bottle in the medicine-chest could save 
his beautiful coat that was falling away in big patches 
across the back and down one side. 

"Poor Brother," purred Cuddle-Kit licking the ugly 
bald spots with her soft pink tongue. "I wish I could 
make you feel well again." 

"What am I to do now my beauty is gone?" meowed 
Proud-Cat piteously. "The family said that it was all I 
had." 



PROUD-CAT AND CUDDLE-KIT 127 

Cuddle-Kit put a loving paw around his neck and purred 
very softly to herself. "'Poor, poor Proud-Cat! It didn't 
take any more than a pot of boiling water to ruin his 
beaut}' : I'm glad after all that mine is safe on the inside." 



Roily Poly 



/^\NCE upon a time there was a little kitten named Roily; 
his other name was Poly. So you see, dear chil- 
dren, this little kitten's name was "Roily Poly." 

Even before Roily Poly's eyes were open his plump little 
fore-paws were feeling their way up against the sides of 
his hat-box home. 

"M-e-w, m-e-w! I hate this thing that keeps me here," 
Roily Poly would cry in a kitteny squeal that was the prom- 
ise of a real "m-e-o-w" later on. 

After a long, long time this little kitten thought the 
hat-box must be growing smaller, for how was a little kit- 
ten whose eyes had been open only a very little while to 
know that he was growing bigger and bigger every day? 
The fur coat his mother first found him in had let itself out 
over and over again as kittens' coats have a way of doing. 

One day Roily Poly found that he could spring and 
catch at the top of the house with the long, sharp claws 
Mother Cat had taught him to keep inside his soft, thick, 
velvet paws. His pretty round face with the wide-open 
eyes and the saucy nose hung over the edge of the box. 

"Go right back, Roily," meowed Mother Cat who came 
trotting up with an uplifted paw. 

"Please don't! O, I'll be good," cried Roily falling back 
onto the cotton-batting rug and rolling up in a ball so that 
Mother Cat couldn't find his sharp pointed ears. (You 
know Mother Cats always make their kittens feel sorry 
in their ears.) 

"Roily," meowed Mother Cat jumping into the hat-box 

128 



ROLLY POLY 



129 



house, "you must stay in here where it is all warm and 
'comfy/ " 

Roily cocked his ears up as if he heard — as indeed he 
did. But he didn't mean to mind. 

The moment Mother Cat went off mouse hunting the 
naughty little kitten made for the edge of the box with his 
long, sharp claws. Slowly but surely he wriggled up until 
his head stuck out of the box like the giraffe's at the circus. 
Then he struggled until his round little stomach lay on 
the top of the box. After that he tilted forward until he 
could throw himself onto the floor outside. 

"This is bigger than many, many boxes," thought Roily 
crawling along on his wobbly legs as fast as a run-a-way 
kitten could. 




THEN HE STRUGGLED UNTIL HIS ROUND LITTLE STOMACH 
LAY ON TOP OF THE BOX. 



i 3 o ANIMAL STORIES 

It wasn't long before he began to feel tired, for the 
carpet was very heavy and soft; his feet sank way in. 

"I think I'll lie down and take a nap," he said to him- 
self. "But where shall I lie down? I don't see any bed 
around here waiting for me." 

"I'll wait until a big cat comes along to give me my 
supper," thought Roily Poly crying piteously. "I wish I 
had my soft little bed and those nice walls to keep the 
naught cold away. I wish mamma would come, even 
if she cuffed me with her claws out." 

"Where are you, Kitten-mine?" called Mother Cat mak- 
ing a scared noise in her throat. 

Mother Cat went to her cold, hungry kitten-cat just 
where he lay on the floor. She sniffed him all over and 
rolled him way around to see that nothing had happened 
to his body but the cold. Then she carried him, oh, so 
gently in her mouth back to the hat-box he had longed 
to get away from. 

Mother Cat dropped him softly on the cotton-batting 
rug and cuddled him right up against her thick warm coat. 

"I thought it wasn't any fun here because I couldn't get 
away," cried Roily as Mother Cat put her fore-paws tight 
around his chubby neck. 

"There wasn't any bed for me to lie down on or any 
walls to keep away the naughty cold out there," added 
Roily pointing with his fore-paw to the walls of the hat-box 
house. 

Mother Cat only purred lovingly. 

"And there wasn't anybody to keep me from being hun- 
gry out there," meowed Roily Poly licking mother's face 
very lovingly with his pink tongue. 



ROLLYPOLY 131 

"Folks say, 'there is no place like home/ " purred 
Mother Cat. 

"Was 'Folks' a little kitten who climbed out of his box 
and couldn't get back by himself?" asked Roily with both 
eyes wide-open. 

"It's only a wise old cat who could answer that question, 
little kitten mine," answered Mother Cat. "It's time for 
you to close first one eye and then the other and go to 
sleep to dream of a fat little white mouse in a field of cat- 
nip." 



Billy Goat— A Butter 

/^\NCE upon a time there was a kid by the name of 
Billy Goat who lived with Mother Goat and Sister 
Nancy in a scrubby pasture just above a railroad track. 

At first life had been all beautiful for Billy and Nancy — 
Mother Goat gave them sweet warm milk and watched 
them lovingly as they trotted by her side. It wasn't long 
before the two little kids began to nibble the green grass 
and grow little stuck-up horns and go-down beards just 
like old Mother Goat's. 

"Oh, come down to the dump with me, Nancy," cried 
Billy Goat. "There are two new tomato cans!" 

"Kids, come back here!" called Mother Goat. "The 
children are looking for you!" 

"But we aren't looking for the children," answered 
Nancy with her eye on the fresh red label. 

"Come along; we can run away from them fast enough," 
added Billy cheerfully. 

"You must come," said Mother Goat with a jerk of her 
horns and a twist of her wisp of a tail. "The children 
have brought out a harness to try you." 

" 'A harness' " ! ba-ba-ed the two young goats. "What 
for?" 

"To hitch you to their wagon," answered Mother Goat. 

"But I don't want to be harnessed," cried Nancy. 

"I won't be," decided Billy with a fierce shake of his 
head. "I shall butt and butt for all I'm worth." 

"You won't be worth much if you do butt," explained 
Mother Goat. "A Billy Goat who won't work isn't as use- 

132 



BILLY GOAT— A BUTTER 



i33 



ful to the world as a Nancy Goat because she might have 
some little kids of her own some day who would do their 
share of work." 




SISTER GOAT KEPT VERY STILL WHILE THE CHILDREN 
TIGHTENED UP THE BUCKLES. 



134 ANIMAL STORIES 

"Why must a goat work?" asked Nancy sadly. 

"It is ever the way of the world unless an animal has 
great beauty or a wonderful voice to pay for its keeps," 
replied Mother Goat wisely. 

"What right have folks to expect us to work for them?" 
asked Billy crossly. 

"Because folks have to work for each other." 

"Here Nancy, Nancy," called the children, "see this 
lovely red leather harness. Here, good Nancy, keep very 
still." 

Sister Goat kept very still while the children tightened 
up the shining buckles until the red harness fitted tightly 
to her white body. 

"Get up, Nancy," ordered the little boy, patting Nan- 
cy's proud horns. 

The good little goat lowered her head a bit but crept 
forward just a step at a time until she had crossed the 
pasture. 

"Ba-ba," called Billy crossly, "you're a foolish goat to 
give in so easy. They'll find work for you sure enough." 

"She's all right," said the little girl, as the little boy 
slipped the harness off. "Good Nancy!" 

"Here, Billy. So you won't come. Our papa can catch 
you." 

Billy Goat bobbed his head and ran just as fast as his 
legs would carry him to the lower corner of the dump. 

"Indeed you don't, sir," said the children's father grab- 
bing tight hold of Billy's horns while the children brought 
up the new harness. 
,; "You needn't laugh," called Billy to Nancy who had 






BILLY GOAT— A BUTTER 135 

trotted up to the dump. "I'll be even with those children 
and that Papa yet." 

Billy Goat bit his mouth hard while he suffered himself 
to be backed into the shafts and led up the path. 

"I'm glad Billy has come to his senses," sighed Mother 
Goat as she nibbled the grass at her feet. "You see, 
Nancy, it will make a difference to your brother's whole 
future. It's wiser to lead than to butt." 

"Whoa, whoa!" called the Papa. 

"O, Mother!" cried Nancy Goat, "Billy is butting with 
all his might. He's butted the little boy and now he's 
butting the Papa." 

Mother Goat hid her head in a bunch of grass for shame. 

The children's father slipped the harness. "Go home, 
Billy Goat," he ordered in a very angry voice. 

"I'm free," he ba-ba-ed, "they won't try to drive me 
again. I'm too much for even the Papa. I'm butting my 
way through the world all right." 

"I'm not so sure," answered Mother Goat sadly. 

"Why did you let them make such a dead easy thing of 
you, Nancy?" he scowled. 

"Because I thought it wouldn't be so hard for me later 
on," answered sister goat very sweetly. 

The next morning the children brought the red harness 
out to put on Nancy. 

"What did I tell you?" smiled Billy with a wink. 

"Come here, you old butter you," called the father com- 
ing out with a rope which he tied around Billy's horns. 
"You aren't going to feed on my grass and treat me like 
this." 

"I don't want to go away," ba-a-ed Billy to Nancy as 



i 3 6 ANIMAL STORIES 

they went up the path to the house. "They are going to 
carry me off in a wagon. The place is all right. I don't 
want to work — that's all." 

'The place is all right," called Mother Goat who was 
following on, "but you can't expect the place to keep you 
unless you keep the place — that's all." "No," went on 
Mother Goat very sadly, "you've butted yourself out of a 
very good home. 

"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba" cried Billy Goat, 
"I'll go in harness if they'll only let me stay." 

"It's too late now," cried Mother Goat. "Ifs small use 
to 'ba-a- after you butt" 



The Parrot and the Canary 

f~\ NCE upon a time there was a parrot whose name was 
Polly Green and a canary bird whose name was Dicky 
Golden. 

Polly gave herself great airs as she sat on her gilded 
perch. "I talk like folks; I am one of the family," she 
said in the bird-language to Dicky. 

"You mean you talk Cracker?" asked Dicky winking 
one of his bright black eyes. 

"Polly want a cracker? Cracker!!!! Pretty Poll!" 
shrieked the parrot looking down upon her bright feathers. 

"What does 'Hush up!' mean? Is there any word for 
it in the bird language?" 

"It's only another name for 'Pretty Poll,' " answered 
Polly condescendingly. 

"The family are coming downstairs now; keep your bill 
closed while I talk to them." 

"Poll! Poll! Pretty Poll! Polly wants a cracker! 
Cracker!!!!" 

"Hush up!" commanded the master. 

But Polly shrieked on just like folks until folks couldn't 
stand it any longer. 

The master took Polly and shut her up in a dark closet 
with the rubbers and umbrellas. 

"Poll!" 

"BANG! ! ! ! !" went the master's fist on the door. "Hush 
up and give Dicky a chance." 

Dicky Golden puffed out his yellow feathers and began 
softly, "Chirp— Chirp— Chirp— " Then he called "Tweet 

137 



138 



ANIMAL STORIES 




THE PARROT AND THE CANARY. 

— Tweet — Tweet — " louder and louder and faster and 
faster until his tiny throat swelled almost to bursting. 

"Good Dicky/' said the master putting a lump of sugar 
into the cage. 

After a long time Polly called out, "I'm sure I can't see 
why they hushed me up and asked you to sing. I can talk 
just like folks — I can." 

"You aren't a bad imitation," answered Dicky truth- 
fully, "but you see it's better to sing your own kind of a 
song than to try to imitate your betters" 



Jocco 

/^NCE upon a time there was a monkey whose name was 
Jocco — like every other monkey who lives on the end 
of a string. 

At first Jocco had belonged to Mother Monkey and lived 
in a tree not far from a cocoanut grove ; but two strong 
brown hands caught the happy little fellow and carried him 
away to a big ship where he w r as very sea-sick and home- 
sick, too, for his mother and all the rest of his monkey rela- 
tions. 

"I'm glad the ship is rocked to sleep," said Jocco smiling 
for the first time since he had left home. "I wonder what 
this ugly creature can be who is walking up the plank? He 
looks like my cousin, the gorilla, — only he is not so hand- 
some." 

"Come along with me," ordered the strange animal who 
could say more words than the poll parrot who sat at the 
captain's table. 

Jocco grinned. 

"You're going home with me," laughed the strange 
animal picking the little monkey up in his arms. 

"The first thing you will have to learn," said the hand- 
organ man (for who but a hand-organ man could want a 
monkey?) "is to wear clothes." 

"Oh, dear!" scowled the wild little creature while the 
hand-organ man pulled a pair of blue trousers with wide 
stripes over his wiry legs. "Must I wear these horrid 
things? And a bright red coat with brass buttons, too? It 
would take me all day to chew the buttons off. Oh! And 

139 



140 



ANIMAL STORIES 



a hat, too — with a string under my chin? Oh, why was I 
born a monkey ?" 

The little fellow thought for a long time. "No," he said 
finally, "that isn't the trouble — why must I dress like a 
man?" 

"Here, Jocco, come look at yourself," ordered the hand- 
organ man holding out a cracked mirror. 




JOCCO HELD OUT HIS BIG HAIRY ARM FOR THE PENNIES 
HELD OUT TO HIM, 



"I am a man now — and a very little man at that," scolded 
Jocco on the table to Jocco in the glass who seemed very 
sorry for the other monkey. 



JOCCO 141 

"What is my master doing ?" grinned Jocco. "Taking off 
his hat? Is he? I can do it, too. He's putting it on 
again. So can I." 

The hand-organ man bowed very low. 

"I can cut up monkey shines, too," grinned Jocco mocking 
his master. 

A few days later the hand-organ man put a bright red 
cent into Jocco's right paw. 

"That's right/' he nodded as Jocco held on tight. 

"He says 'pocket, Jocco,' " thought the bright little mon- 
key. "I wonder if he means the little cheek pouch in my 
coat that he's holding open for me to drop the money into?" 

"Good Jocco! Listen to the music that I make." 

The little monkey watched with big round eyes while his 
master turned a crank and ground out a happy noise 
that made Jocco's feet go round and round all by them- 
selves without trying. 

"Now, Jocco," said his master one morning as he 
brushed the red coat and polished the brass buttons — , "I'm 
going to carry you out with me to see if you can't take pen- 
nies from other people as politely as you do from me. 
Smile and bow, and bow and smile and keep it up until 
your pocket is full — when your smile will stay on without 
trying." 

"This is most as much fun as climbing a cocoanut tree," 
grinned Jocco as he sat on the hand-organ followed by a 
crowd of happy little children. 

"Bow!" Ordered his master giving the string a toss and 
letting out the rope. 

The happy little monkey danced in time to the happy 



142 ANIMAL STORIES 

noise while the children skipped round and round crying, 
"isn't he a darling monkey! I want to give him a penny." 

Jocco held out his long hairy arm hidden under the polite 
red coat for the pennies held up to him. The little fellow 
dropped the pennies one by one safely into his pocket and 
took off his hat again and again until the children cheered 
him. 

"I want to give him a penny, too," called a little girl, 
"just because he's so cunning. I'm going to ask my 
mamma to give me one because I want to see him put it into 
his pocket and make a bow." 

Round the corner and up the street and down the next 
street went proud little Jocco smiling and making friends. 

It was hot — Jocco longed for the cocoanut groves where a 
monkey may do as he pleases, but he smiled on until the 
hand-organ man had to empty his little pocket into his own 
great one. 

Then Jocco's master bought him a cocoanut on the corner 
stand and let out his string until he could run up into a tall 
green tree all by himself. 

The little monkey smiled happily down as his master 
counted out the money. 

Jocco took off his little skiddo hat and made a bow from 
the branch of the tree. 

"You're all right, Jocco," called the hand-organ man jingl- 
ing the coins. 

"Well, I've found out one thing," chattered the little 
monkey in his own language, — "the only way to take in a 
pocketful of money is to hand out a barrel of politeness." 



Toodles and Tinty 



i^NCE upon a time there was a white bull dog with 
uncut ears and a cut-off taiL 

Miss Polly used to look at him very sorrowfully when 
he was a little puppy and ask him to go find the rest of 
it, or bite the naughty person who took it away from him. 

But Toodles never answered a word but "Bowwow" 
and wagged what tail had been spared to him, which was 
all that there was left for him to do. 

It was always just Toodles alone until the evening Miss 
Polly came home with a bundle in her arms. 

"It smells like dog," sniffed Toodles, going straight up to 
his mistress. 

"Ow! Ow!" whined a tiny voice inside the blanket. 

"It's live dog," growled Toodles. "I'm afraid it is go- 
ing to take my place." 

"Good Toodles!" smiled his mistress, holding the little 
puppy out to him. 

"If that beast weren't safe in your arms, I'd chew him 
all up," snapped Toodles, angrily. 

"Good Toodles, I'm going to give you this little puppy 
for your very own," said Miss Polly, laying the frightened 
little creature between Toodles' forepaws. 

"His name is 'TINTY,' " said Miss Polly, as she closed 
the door, leaving them alone together. 

Toodles looked down on the lonesome little puppy, who 
seemed almost lost in his loose yellow coat with the white 
vest. The soft brown eyes with the big whites looked 
piteously into Toodles' face, while the big ears hung sadly 

143 



i 4 4 ANIMAL STORIES 

down. The little snub of a nose and the crinkly cheeks 
with the soft whiskers and the black mole looked very 
sorry for Tinty. 

"He looks as if he might grow into a dog one of these 
days," sniffed Toodles, walking around the little stranger. 
"I don't believe I was any bigger than he is once upon 
a time." 

"Why don't you wag that tail of yours?" he barked, try- 
ing to think of something to say. "You're a lucky dog; I 
can never get more than half a wag out of mine." 

But the little puppy hung his ears and mouth and trem- 
bled on his wabbly legs until he lay as flat on the floor as a 
stuffed rug. 

"I want my mother," he whined, burying his face in the 
kitchen oilcloth. "I can't find any place to hide me and 
I'm scared." 

"Poor little thing," comforted Toodles, putting a cold 
nose down on the floor beside the sorry little face. 

The stranger dragged his wee body just a bit nearer to 
Toodles. "You're warm and big," he whimpered, "most 
as big as my mamma. Can't you be my mamma?" 

Toodles' eyes grew big and soft as he looked at the lit- 
tle stranger. "A dog can never have but one mother," he 
answered truthfully, as he gently licked the drooping ears. 
"But I will do the best I can to make a happy home for 
you." 

The little puppy put out a pink velvety tongue and 
brushed Toodles' whiskers very affectionately. Then he 
did his tiny best to stand up on his wobbly legs and pull 
his happy strings — his fallen ears lifted themselves to hear 
Toodles' kind bowwows and his tucked-in tail wagged 



TOODLES AND TINTY 



145 




"I WISH THAT I COULD HAVE SOME." 



itself to show how happy he was going to try to be now 
that he had found a friend. 

"Good dog!" barked Toodles, joyfully. 

"Will you find some other little puppies to play with me?" 
asked Tinty, looking around the room with big, lonesome 
eyes. "There were three more of me at home." 

"Miss Polly never had any other little puppy but me, and 
I'm all grown up now," answered Toodles sadly. 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" said Tinty, showing the whites of his big 
eyes just like a little colored baby. 

Miss Polly brought in a bowl of bread crumbs, swimming 
in thick brown gravy. 

"I wish I could have some," whimpered Tinty, as he 



146 ANIMAL STORIES 

wrinkled his nose and looked with hungry eyes on the 
steaming bowl. 

"It's my supper, but there is enough for both of us," an- 
swered Toodles kindly, as he waited for Tinty to put his 
anxious little mouth into the dish. 

After supper Miss Polly carried Tinty up to the room 
where Toodles slept in a high-backed rush basket upon a 
blue cushion and an embroidered pillow, with his name 
on it. 

"I don't know how I am going to shut my eyes up to- 
night without the other puppies and my mamma and the 
straw," whimpered Tinty loudly, as he snuggled up to the 
big white dog. 

"It's my bed, but it's big enough for both of us," an- 
swered Toodles stepping into the basket and curling his 
body until his head and the tip of his tail almost met. 

Tinty crawled slowly over the edge of the braided straw 
and tumbled into the little place Toodles had made for him 
where he went to sleep with only one low whimper for the 
other puppies, his mamma and the straw. 

The next morning Tinty crawled slowly over Toodles, 
who lay stretching his stiff legs over the edge of the basket. 

"Toodles," he asked in a soft little voice, climbing over 
the big dog's head and putting a pink-lined mouth to his 
ear. "Toodles, you didn't want me here when I came. 
What makes you so good to me now?" 

"It's a pretty poor dog who can't love a little puppy 
when he finds how much that little puppy needs him," 
answered Toodles, giving Tinty a toss over his head and 
playfully rolling him across the floor. 



Toodles and the Milk Boy 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty opened first one eye and then 
the other to look for Toodles in the early morning. 

The little puppy stretched his legs way out and his mouth 
wide open and yawned in a lonesome little voice, "Toodles, 
aren't you hiding away from me somewhere?" 

Tinty sniffed wisely for a moment, then whined aloud, 
"O, Toodles, how could you go off and leave me when I 
was fast asleep and couldn't take care of myself?" 

Tinty sniffed around the room and listened with both 
ears up, but there was not so much as a smell to be found 
of Toodles anywhere. 

Then he trotted sadly out to the head of the back stairs, 
where he leaned his forepaws on the edge of the landing 
and looked down with timid eyes. 

'Toodles," he whined. "Dear Toodles. Please come 
up here and talk to your little Tinty. I can't throw myself 
down unless somebody carries me." 

"Bowwow wow," answered a cheerful voice in the 
hall below as the big dog caught the sad little whine in the 
hall above. 

"Dear Toodles, where have you been all this time?" 
asked the little puppy as Toodles bounded up the stairs. 

Toodles licked his chops very carefully three times, 
wagged his tail and seated himself beside Tinty. 

"I've been out," he said, making his stumpy tail thump 
against the floor. 

Tinty looked up with sorrowful eyes and a puckery nose 
as he whimpered, "Why didn't you take me, too?" 

147 




*I MET A BOY WITH A BIG TIN CAN. 



I48 



TOODLES AND THE MILK BOY 149 

■"I'm sorry," answered Toodles very kindly, "but you are 
too little to be taken everywhere just yet. But I'll tell 
you all about it." 

Tinty cocked his ears and rested his eyes on Toodles' 
face. 

'The other night I had a dream," began Toodles. 

"Was it the night you growled and scared me awake?" 
asked the little puppy. 

"That was the night. I dreamed there was a little 
boy who fed me roast beef and chicken— and caramels. I 
was trying to eat that caramel when you heard me growl. 
You never in all your life heard of such things as that boy 
brought for me to eat." 

"No," answered Tinty enviously. "I never so much as 
had one caramel in all my life." 

"But the trouble was," Toodles went on, "I always woke 
up hungry. Then I said to myself: Toodles Barker, you 
are a fool. What is the use of lying here and dreaming 
about good things to make you hungry when you might 
get out of your comfortable bed and set your teeth into 
something that is really truly?" 

"What is a 'really truly'?" asked Tinty. 

"It's something you can feel with your teeth and claws 
when you're wide awake," answered Toodles. 

"Oh, Oh, Oh," said Tinty. "Did you find a 'really 
truly,' Toodles?" 

"I did, and on the very first morning," answered Toodles, 
giving his chops another long lick. 

"What was it like, Toodles?" asked the little puppy, 
showing the whites of his eyes as only Tinty and a little 
colored baby could. 



i 5 o ANIMAL STORIES 

"It was this way. I met a boy with a big tin can com- 
ing around the corner," explained Toodles. "I didn't know 
what was inside the can any more than the cook in the 
kitchen knows, but I took my chances and sat up on my 
hind legs and waved my paws at the boy and barked until 
he had to stop. 

"What did you do then?" asked Tinty. 

"I jumped up on him and licked the can and sat up on 
my hind legs again and kept waving my paws until he 
opened the big can." 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" said Tinty, never taking his eyes from 
Toodles' face. 

"It was milk, fresh from the cow," said Toodles. "The 
boy poured some into the cover of the can and then dropped 
it into a round hole in the sidewalk — a little hole just as 
big as a saucer." 

"I wish I hadn't been home asleep all the time. Wasn't 
there another little hole just big enough for me?" 

"There was only one hole," said Toodles, "but it was 
as good as two holes, because the boy filled it up twice." 

"Oh, Oh, Oh !" said Tinty, snuggling up to Toodles. "It's 
just like your dream — but I do wish you didn't have to get 
out of your warm, comfortable bed and go out into the 
cold world so early in the morning." 

Toodles put a soft paw on Tinty's shoulder. "Little 
puppy mine," he said, "by the time you're an old dog like 
me you'll find that the only way to make dreams come true 
is to be up and doing." 



Tinty's Bath 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty heard the rattling of tin. 
The little puppy turned fearfully around and cocked 
his ears to listen. 

"It's my bath tub," he whined sadly turning tail and 
sneaking down the hall to hide under the four-post bed 
with the fringed counterpane that was long enough to hide 
a little puppy from his bath. 

"Tinty, come here," whistled Miss Polly, coming quickly 
down the hall. "Where are you, Tinty?" 

The little runaway crawled closer to the wall without 
so much as one little "bowwow." 

"Bad Tinty, you're hiding somewhere," scolded Miss 
Polly, coming into the guest room. 

The naughty little puppy hugged the carpet more closely. 
"She knows I'm under here," he trembled. "What can I 
do? What can I do?" 

Tinty whined as a ray of light fell across his hiding place 
and a long arm groped under the bed. "I'm not safe here, 
for her arms are long and they can stretch, too." 

Tinty made himself as flat as a loaf of gingerbread and 
crawled from under the bedstead to the big winged chair 
before Miss Polly found where he was. 

"I'm caught, I'm caught," whimpered Tinty as Miss 
Polly's long arm slipped under the low chair and caught 
him by the collar. 

"Ow, Ow, Ow!" yelped Tinty as Miss Polly carried him 
to the tin bath tub half filled with warm water. 

"Good Tinty, don't be afraid," said Miss Polly, looking 

151 




MISS POLLY CARRIED HIM TO THE TIN BATH TUB. 



J 5 2 



TINTY'S BATH 153 

lovingly into his frightened little face as she held his fore- 
paws together and seated him slowly in the tin tub. 

Tinty looked at the cooky his mistress held to his mouth. 
"I'm so frightened I can't take it in," thought Tinty, whose 
little mouth was so afraid of the water that it couldn't open 
itself wide enough to take in a cooky. 

1 'What is the trouble, Tinty ?" barked Toodles, coming 
in with a rush. 

"I'm being washed away," howled Tinty, looking in the 
mirror, which told him that Tinty wet wasn't Tinty dry. 

"You're all there," answered Toodles. "It's only the 
naughty dirt that is being washed away." 

"I don't believe it," answered Tinty, making a face as 
he tried to lick the soap from his whiskers. "This stuff 
they rub all over me tastes worse than any mud puddle I 
ever stepped into. Why can't Miss Polly wash me in 
some of that pretty soap I licked on her washstand the 
other day? It smells like the flowers in the garden." 

"That's an everyday kind of soap," explained Toodles. 
"You have to be washed all over every day to keep clean 
with her kind of soap. You wouldn't like that." 

"No, I wouldn't," chattered Tinty. "Folks must be very 
dirty to need so many baths. I can't see why Miss Polly 
is giving me this bath, can you, Toodles?" 

"You need it now to keep you from smelling 'doggy' by 
and by," explained Toodles, politely. 

"Don't people expect a puppy to smell a little 'doggy'?" 
snapped Tinty, splashing loudly. 

"A puppy oughtn't to smell at all," answered Toodles, 
looking at Tinty's fine coat of lather that made him seem 
like a little white woolly dog on a Christmas tree. 



i 54 ANIMAL STORIES 

"I won't stay here any longer," whimpered the little 
fellow, thrashing himself back and forth and frantically 
trying to crawl over the side of the tub. 

But Miss Polly held tightly onto the strong leather col- 
lar, until Tinty pulled backwards with all his might and 
pulled his slippery head out of his slippery collar. 

"SPLASH!" went the water way up to the ceiling and 
all over Toodles and Tinty and Miss Polly as the little 
puppy fell backwards into the tub. 

"I'm too slippery for you to catch with all this nasty 
dirty soap," chattered Tinty, catching hold of the sides of 
the tub with his sharp forepaws and tumbling out onto the 
floor with a grand shake that sent a shower of suds all over 
the bath room. 

Miss Polly tried to catch him on his way to the guest 
room, but the floor was almost as slippery as the runaway 
puppy. 

Tinty gave himself another shake as he climbed up onto 
the clean counterpane with the fringe around it. 

"This is a fine place to get dry in," he whined, putting 
his head in the pillows and rolling all the way down until 
he buried himself in the soft blue eiderdown quilt. 

"Miss Polly is coming," whined Tinty, sliding down to 
the floor and out under the bed to the next room, where 
there was a dry counterpane. 

The little puppy rolled over and over and made little 
nests of the pillows. Then he pawed down the counter- 
pane and rolled himself in a thick blanket with pink and 
blue stripes. 

"You little beast!" cried Miss Polly, pulling off the outer 



TINTY'S BATH 155 

cover and winding it round and round Tinty until he looked 
just like a little Italian baby in swaddling clothes. 

"I hate this," whimpered Tinty as he struggled vainly 
to free himself. "I think it's very mean to put a puppy 
dog into a bath and then tie him up paws and all." 

Miss Polly held him tightly in her lap before the kero- 
sene stove that winked a fiery eye at him. 

"I hate water," said Tinty, looking down at happy 
Toodles, who sat with his head against Miss Polly's knee. 

"You want to play with good, clean dogs, don't you?" 
asked Toodles, anxiously looking up. 

"Of course I do," answered Tinty, wriggling hopelessly. 
"I hate dim gutter dogs, who have fleas and scratch all 
the time." 

"Of course you do," answered Toodles, putting both paws 
in Miss Polly's lap and leaning over the little puppy in his 
swaddling garment as if he were, indeed, a mother. 

"There is only one place for a dog to find a clean coat 
and to drown his fleas — " 

"I'll promise to go there if you'll tell me where it is," 
said Tinty, looking lovingly up at Toodles and licking the 
tip of his nose. 

"It's in your horrid tin bath tub with the nasty, dirty 
soap," said Toodles, pointing his nose toward the place 
Tinty had run away from half an hour before. 



Tinty and the Paint 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty found a low board fence in 
front of the kitchen threshold. 

The little puppy couldn't read "P-A-I-N-T" on the board 
fence, but he could smell it with his curious black snub 
nose. 

'There's something new on this board/' sniffed Tinty, 
"but there's more of it inside on the floor. It must be 
fun for a little puppy to go inside and play or else they 
wouldn't be taking all this trouble to keep him out." 

The little dog craned his neck over the low fence and 
rested his forepaws on the top. 

"I'm going in there to play," he barked, wriggling his 
roily poly body until he hung on the top of the fence by 
his strong shoulders. Then he wriggled again and kept 
on wriggling until his forepaws came down on the green 
floor. The round little stomach and the hind legs came 
tumbling after. 

"Why, I'm sticking to the floor," whined Tinty, looking 
around him and then down at his feet. "No, the floor is 
sticking to me." 

The little dog took a few more steps. "My feet are all 
over the floor and the floor is all over my feet," he whim- 
pered, wrinkling his forehead. "I don't see how such a 
thing could happen to a little puppy dog like me." 

"But won't Miss Polly be glad to see my feet all over 
the floor?" bowwowed Tinty, as he slowly wriggled his 
way back over the low board fence. 

"My feet feel very sticky; I think I will wipe them on 

156 



TINTY AND THE PAINT 



*57 



the sitting room carpet, because it's very new and thick/' 
said Tinty as he made his way down the hall. "Why, I'm 
making paw prints all the way along. Won't Miss Polly 
be surprised? A little of that green stuff goes a long way/' 
Tinty trotted into the sunny sitting room with a smile 
at both ends of him. "It's still coming off," he barked 
joyously. "How did I ever carry so much away in my lit- 




«-?%- 



C7=> s-c_t°m 1 r* e_ L ,E>T*>Jj c_e_ 



'YOU'LL CATCH IT," SAID TOODLES. 



tie paws? By and by when this is used up I'll go back 
and get some more to make my mark all over the recep- 
tion room. Here comes Toodles." ■ 

"You'll catch it," said Toodles, looking down on the 
fresh green paw prints and sniffing wisely. 

"Catch what?" asked Tinty proudly. 

"A good whipping," answered Toodles. "Miss Polly has 
just seen the kitchen floor and here she is."_ 

Tinty's mistress looked down on the thick red carpet 



158 ANIMAL STORIES 

and then she looked at Tinty, who was almost as green as 
a grasshopper in a toy store. 

"I wouldn't spank you to save your life," she cried an- 
grily, taking up a newspaper and putting on a pair of 
gloves as Tinty tucked his tail in and sunk down into the 
carpet as far as any dog could sink. 

"You're not fit to handle without gloves — and news- 
papers, too," she scolded, catching hold of Tinty by the 
big paper that rattled in his ears and scratched his curious 
little nose. 

The little puppy shivered as Miss Polly dropped him into 
the little tin tub and poured the bath water from a nasty 
smelling bottle on the top shelf. Tinty couldn't read 
"T-U-R-P-E-N-T-I-N-E" with his sorrowful brown eyes, but 
he could smell it with his naughty green nose. 

O, Toodles," he cried to the big dog who stood close by, 
"What shall I do? Miss Polly is scolding me and so is 
everybody else in this whole big house. Miss Polly says, 
she does, that the green floor has to be put down all over 
again and the red carpet has to be taken up. And that 
isn't all," added Tinty, trembling all over; "I'm going to 
get such a spanking that I won't be able to wag my tail 
until I know a great deal more than I do now. How can 
they be so cruel to me when I am so little?" 

"It does seem hard, — the spanking, I mean," answered 
Toodles, "but don't forget that the littlest dog can make 
trouble enough to get a whole big family by the ears." 




The First Lesson in Politeness 

/^NCE upon a time Miss Polly took Tinty up into her 
lap and patted his head very gently. Toodles sat 
close by with his head in her lap. Miss Polly patted Tood- 
les with the other hand. 

"Give me your paw," said Miss Polly, holding out her 
pretty white hand, with the rings that sparkled and the 
nails that never scratched. 

The big white dog put his right paw out very, very 
straight and laid it in Miss Polly's as politely as any dog 
could. He let it lie there very softly until Miss Polly said 
"Good Toodles" and took her hand away. 

Tinty looked down with a wondering look in his two 
big eyes as Toodles again put out his paw and lightly 
touched Miss Polly's dress. 

"She doesn't see me," explained Toodles as he brought 
his paw more heavily against her. 

"Why, Toodles!" exclaimed his mistress, looking down 
on the strong white paw that stood straight out against her 
chair. "You want to shake hands all over again. Give 
me your dear little paw." 

Miss Polly gently touched Tinty's right forepaw as she 
shook hands with Toodles and said, "Now, see if you 
can't learn to be a polite little dog like Toodles." 

Miss Polly gently touched Tinty's soft little right fore- 
paw as she said, "Give me your paw, Tinty." 

The little puppy moved his foot just the tiniest bit as 
he looked at his mistress. 

"Give me your paw," she said again, bending his wabbly 

i59 



160 ANIMAL STORIES 

little right knee until it seemed to Tinty as though he 
couldn't help lifting his paw from her lap. 

Tinty played this litle game every day until Miss Polly 
had only to hold out her hand and say, "Give me your paw,* 
Tinty/" before the paw would be reached out to hide itself 
within her loving grasp. There was always candy in Miss 
Polly's other hand. 

After a few days when Miss Polly found the little puppy 
wasn't afraid she would shake his paw ever so gently and 
give him two pieces of candy. 

"Why in the world do I have to put my paw out and 
take her paw?" asked Tinty wonderingly. "I wish it 
were the other paw for a change, but Miss Polly will never 
take the other one, even when she's washed me clean all 
herself." 

"Your right paw was made to shake folks" paws with; 
that's the way they have of saying they are glad to see 
each other. It's like wagging your tail at a dog to let him 
know you're glad to see him," explained Toodles wisely. 

"It's a great deal of trouble to learn how," whined Tinty. 
"I don't see any use in it at all. I'd like to keep all four 
of my paws to myself." 

"You mustn't talk like that, Tinty," said Toodles, laying 
a paw on Tinty's shoulder. "It's the first lesson in polite- 
ness. When you have lived with Miss Polly as long as I 
have you will find that she shakes hands with people when 
they come in and when they go out, too." 

"Does she get candy for it every time?" asked Tinty, 
looking sidewise at his chops. "Or didn't she have to 
learn how?" 

"Folks have to learn how when they're little the same 






THE FIRST LESSON IN POLITENESS 161 

as we do. There was a little girl calling here who didn't 
know how to put her hand straight out nor to give the right 
one. But I showed her how. Her mother said before 
me that I had taught that child a good lesson. The idea 
of a child as large as I am holding out the left paw." 

'Til give my paw to folks if you say I ought, but I 
honestly don't see what it all means," said Tinty, looking 
at the wise old dog. 

"It's just this way," he explained, laying a paw on Tinty 's 
shoulder. "Folks give their paws to company to show- 
that they are safe in the house and that they don't mean to 
snap and growl and bite. It is always polite for folks to 
offer their paws as soon as company comes to let company 
know that it is safe to stay." 

"But why do folks give their paws all over again when 
they go out to the front door with company?" 

"Why, Tinty, you are a stupid little puppy. That is 
just to let people know that it is safe for them to come 
back whenever they wish without fear of a fight. You 
see, Tinty, giving your paw is just the first lesson in po- 
liteness, for it means "I'm glad to see you," and "it's safe 
for you to come again." 



Tinty' s Four Suppers 

i^NCE upon a time Toodles looked at Tinty. "Whose 
little dog are you?" he asked, with a sniff. 

"I'm Tinty; don't you know me, Toodles ?" whimpered 
the little puppy, trying to wag his tail. 

"There's nothing left of you but your bowwow," an- 
swered Toodles. "Your beautiful coat is stuffed out like 
a sausage and your legs are almost out of sight. What 
has happened?" 

The little puppy crawled just a bit nearer on his four 
wabbly legs that seemed more wabbly than usual and bow- 
wowed in the big dog's open ear, "I'm a stuffed dog, I am." 

"Not yet," answered Toodles. "You're no dead dog yet. 
Did the family stuff you or did you stuff yourself?" 

"It was the family," whined Tinty, moving from side 
to side very uncomfortably. "You see, Miss Polly went 
out to supper — " 

Tinty rolled over with a groan. 

"She fed me before she went — I heard her tell the 
lady who wears windows on her eyes that I had had my 
supper, but the old lady is sick in her ears. She thought 
Miss Polly wanted her to give me my supper. That made 
two," whined Tinty, laying his paws over his little fat 
stomach. 

"Two suppers would never make you look as fat as 
this," said Toodles as Tinty rolled over again. 

"It didn't," groaned Tinty, lying full length on the floor. 
"The cook came in and called me her dear, hungry, little 
doggie, she did. Then I had another supper." 

162 




£«» 



w 



"I'M VERY SICK. TOODLES." HE WHINED. 
163 



i6 4 ANIMAL STORIES 

"You didn't need to eat it," barked Toodles sharply. 

Tinty drew himself into a little ball and rolled over again. 
"That wasn't all," he whined weakly. "Miss Polly's mamma 
came into the kitchen and called me a dear little 
thing without anybody to feed me. She gave me meat and 
gravy, but I couldn't swallow the whole of it, because the 
cook's supper came way up to my chin." 

"Do you feel very sick?" asked Toodles anxiously stand- 
ing over the squirming puppy. 

"I'm sick here," groaned Tinty, looking down on his 
stomach and pointing his forepaws to the place. "I wish 
I had all four of those suppers on the floor beside me." 

"Perhaps you may see them there before long," com- 
forted the big dog. "Here comes Miss Polly, scolding 
right out loud." 

"The poor little darling! It's a mercy his skin didn't 
burst. Just look at him. The idea of laughing. It's no 
thanks to this family that he isn't a dead dog." 

Miss Polly ran out of the kitchen and came back with 
a big bottle. "Now you hold his dear little paws while I 
give him some of this," she ordered the cook, as she 
squeezed a hand between Tinty's teeth. 

"Poor Tinty knew that he was full up to his little dark- 
roofed mouth, but he had to let the nasty medicine trickle 
down as he gurgled and sputtered piteously. He whim- 
pered softly as he tried to wash away the taste on his pink 
tongue by wiping it on his sorry little cheek with the mole. 

"It's castor oil," said Toodles. "I know all about it." 

Tinty whined piteously, while Miss Polly filled a rubber 
bag with water from the tea kettle. 

Then she laid him gently on the cushioned rocking chair, 



TINTY'S FOUR SUPPERS 165 

with a tiny pillow beneath his head and snuggled the hot- 
water bottle alongside of his little aching "tummy." Miss 
Polly laid a gentle hand on his head and covered him all 
warm and comfy with a pink worsted shawl. 

Tinty leaned his sorry little face over the edge of the 
chair and cuddled it on the big dog's shoulder. "I'm very 
sick, Toodles," he whined, "but how could I help getting 
sick when I had four suppers put before me without so 
much as bowwowing for them?" 

"Tinty," answered Toodles, resting his head on the big 
rocker and gently moving the chair to and fro, "Tinty, do 
you know what old Grandmother Bowwow around the cor- 
ner always says?" 

"What does she say?" groaned Tinty. 
Too much of a good thing is good for nothing/ " 



Tinty Finds Out About Cats 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty trotted alongside of Toodles 
up the carriage path. 

"I can keep up with you if I run as fast as my legs will 
carry me," panted Tinty, with his pink tongue hanging from 
his pink mouth. Their forepaws touched the edge of the 
path at the same moment. 

"You do very well," answered Toodles, who wasn't even 
out of breath. "With a little practice you ought to be able 
to run the streets with me." 

"Why can't I go now?" panted Tinty. 

"There are other things for you to learn right here on 
the place," answered Toodles. 

"What can they be?" asked Tinty, staring with wonder- 
ing eyes at a big black animal, with a very high, round back, 
arched above the fence. She had a long tail that swung 
angrily and two bright green eyes that glowered at Toodles 
and Tinty. 

"She hasn't the proper respect for us," growled the big 
dog. "It's our duty to keep her off this fence, because 
she has four kittens on the other side." 

The little puppy watched Toodles anxiously as he gave 
one spring and bounded toward the fence. 

Mrs. Kitten Cat saw him coming. 

"SPITZ!!!" she hissed with more of a light in her eyes 
and more of a hump in her back. 

"How dare you sit up there and laugh at me on my own 
grounds?" he bowwowed loudly as he looked up at the 
angry cat. "I'll climb up the post if you don't get down 
the next time I bark at you." 

1 66 




Jfescvw N^E>K ucc 



"YIP YAP- YIP ! ! r YELPED TOODLES. 



I67 



1 68 ANIMAL STORIES 

Mrs. Kitten Cat put out a paw and spat loudly at 
Toodles. 

The big dog looked up at her, snapped his strong jaws, 
gave one upward spring and caught the fence by his fore- 
legs. 

Tinty lay trembling on the ground. "I do hope that 
creature will not bite my dear Toodles' ears off," he whim- 
pered as Mrs. Kitten Cat drew her chops tightly across 
as fine a row of sharp white teeth as ever sharpened a 
fish bone. 

But Mrs. Kitten Cat didn't use her fine white teeth; she 
only thrust out a soft black paw and brushed Toodles 
lightly on the cheek. 

'TIP, YIP, YIP!!!" yelped Toodles, letting go the fence 
and falling to the ground as though the soft paw had hurt 
him very much. 

"I gave you a glad paw, even if I wasn't invited to play 
in your yard," she hissed, lowering her fore feet and 
dropping hastily to the ground on the other side of the 
fence where the kittens were waiting for her. 

Tinty shook with fright. "What could I do if that great 
beast dropped down from the fence?" he whimpered, 
trying to hide under a bush. "I'm only a little puppy." 

"Stop your whining and come over here," growled Tood- 
les, who was still rolling over and over on the ground. 

"Are my eyes put out?" he asked, fearfully. 

"No, they're both in," answered Tinty, looking care- 
fully into Toodles' face. "But one of them is all red and 
going to sleep." 

"It's out, I tell you!" snapped Toodles. "It's my eye 
and I ought to know." 






TINTY FINDS OUT ABOUT CATS 169 

'There's an eye on each side of your nose," comforted 
the little puppy, looking sorrowfully at the long, even row 
of scratches from Toodles' eyebrows to his nose. 

"I thought at first I would never see anything out of it 
again but the dark, like poor, blind Tabby/' he whined 
sadly. "You're sure it's there?" 

"I'll lick it and make it well," answered Tinty, showing 
a sorry little pink tongue. 

"She didn't bite you with her sharp white teeth, did 
she?" asked Tinty, as he licked long and patiently. "How 
did she ever bring all these cuts across your face with her 
beautiful, soft, velvety paws?" 

"Her velvety paws?" yowled Toodles, rolling over and 
over again. "A cat's paws are nothing but long, sharp 
claws to scratch your eyes out with. The velvet keeps 
them sharp and cruel until she wants to use them." 

"I wasn't afraid of her long sharp claws," said Tinty, 
opening his eyes until they were as big as doll's saucers, 
"I was afraid of her sharp white teeth; I knew, of course, 
that they were dangerous." 

"Tinty," groaned Toodles, looking at the little puppy 
with the red eye shut, "there is little danger in the open 
jaws; it lies hidden in the velvet paws." 



Afternoon Tea 

f^NCE upon a time Toodles looked all around him like 
the wise old dog he was. 

"Tinty," barked Toodles, "Miss Polly is going to have 
'callers' this afternoon." 

"What are 'callers' ?" asked the little puppy, opening 
his big, round eyes. 

" 'Callers' are just folks in their best clothes and com- 
pany manners. Miss Polly always says she is glad to see 
them, and they are always glad to see Miss Polly, because 
there's always something for them to eat on the tea table." 

"Puppy biscuit?" inquired Tinty. 

"Not exactly," answered Toodles. "You see, folks have 
very poor teeth." 

"Are we to be invited?" asked Tinty, wrinkling his fore- 
head anxiously. 

"Probably," replied the big dog. "You must sit on 
your hind legs beside the table very patiently and never 
offer to touch anything until Miss Polly gives you a bite. 
Then you go to each person in turn and beg as prettily as 
you know how after you have offered your paw." 

"Don't you get tired, sitting up so long?" asked Tinty, 
yawning loudly. 

"Of course, every dog does," replied Toodles, "but that 
is what going into society means. I heard Miss Polly say 
she was so uncomfortable all the time old Miss Jones was 
there that she did not know what to do, but she sat up 
politely and never growled out loud at all." 

"How do you stand the waiting round until you eat?" 
asked the little puppy. 

170 



AFTERNOON TEA 



171 



"I stand it just the same as folks do," answered Toodles, 
gaping widely. "I put a paw against a chair to steady 




O^se^H iNClEfRju ex*- 



"WHAT HAVE THEY HERE.'' 



myself a bit when people don't pay any attention to me 
or I feel tired." 

"This going into society must be a nuisance," growled 



1 72 ANIMAL STORIES 

Tinty. "Why can't folks eat all they want and get out 
when they feel like it?" 

"Society isn't just eating," declared Toodles, wisely. 
"It's waiting around and doing all sorts of tricks before you 
are fed." 

Tinty crept very slowly under the red portieres and 
looked greedily upon the newly spread table, with the 
dainty cups and saucers. 

"What have they here?" he asked, sniffing boldly around 
the edge of the table. "There must be something good un- 
der that little white cloth with the fringe on it. I think 
I'll try one." 

Tinty looked around him anxiously as he rose on his 
hind feet and gobbled down the chocolates as fast as any 
little dog could gobble chocolates. 

"What is the use of sitting up and begging for one piece 
and being polite for a whole afternoon when I can gobble 
down everything on this table before Miss Polly comes in? 
Here she is now. What shall I do? Where can I find 
something to hide me?" 

Tinty slunk under the table. 

"Bad dog," scolded Miss Polly in her crossest voice. 
"You're a sweet little creature, you are, with a pound of 
Huyler's in your miserable little insides. Go right straight 
out of this room ; you're fit only for the kitchen." 

Toodles jumped wildly around, showing a blue bow on 
his collar. "I'm going to the afternoon tea," he said, hold- 
ing his head proudly above his broad chest. 

"Oh, dear," whimpered Tinty. "I shall have to stay by 
myself this whole long afternoon." 

The little dog stayed by himself as long as he could 



AFTERNOON TEA 173 

(which was more than half an hour) , then crept softly into 
the hall, where he could hear the hum of voices and the 
rattle of teacups. 

"I wish I dared to go inside, even if I don't get another 
bite to eat," he whined softly. "Society is more than just 
what a dog gets to eat. You know when you're standing 
on the outside of it all by yourself." 

Tinty's nose twitched as he heard Toodles' jaws close 
over some kind of a dainty. "Oh, dear," he whimpered, "I 
must run out of the hall, for the maid is coming out for 
more hot water." 

Toodles followed, wagging his stumpy tail and licking 
his chops. 

"What kind of a time are you having?" whined Tinty 
aloud as he looked at his friend. 

"Fine!" declared Toodles joyously, licking his chops 
again. "I never saw a set of people who enjoyed the 
pleasure of my society more. They said — " Toodles 
lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling. "They said 
I would not be out of place in the Queen's drawing room." 

Tinty looked at the floor and slunk under the table, 
where he hid himself in a basket with the onions and tur- 
nips. 

"They said that you were fit for the Queen's Drawing 
Room," he whimpered loudly, "and Miss Polly said I was 
fit only for the kitchen." 

"It's too bad and too true," answered Toodles, crawling 
under the table and laying his proud head on Tinty's hang- 
dog face, "but, puppy mine, you can never get any farther 
into society than your manners will carry you!" 



Parlor Tricks 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty sat in the reception room. 

"Come here, Tinty," said Miss Polly, leading the 
unwilling little puppy by his collar. 

"Sit up, Tinty," she coaxed, fitting his haunches into the 
corner and gently taking his forepaws in her hand. 

"Up, up, up, Tinty, good dog; that's right!" She smiled 
as the little creature tremblingly tried to keep his bal- 
ance. 

"Toodles," called Tinty proudly, "see me sitting up in the 
corner. I'm all up, I am. Miss Polly is only just touch- 
ing my paws, that's all." 

Tinty opened his mouth wide to take in the candy Miss 
Polly handed to him, while Toodles sat up on his hind legs 
and begged for a piece. 

"Good little dog!" smiled Miss Polly, slowly taking her 
fingers away from Tinty. 

The little forepaws that had been held up so prettily 
let themselves down very unsteadily, while Tinty dropped 
heavily on all fours from out his corner. 

"Here," said Miss Polly to Toodles, who still stood upon 
his hind legs. "Good Toodles and Good Tinty," she said 
putting a piece of candy into each open mouth. 

"O, Toodles," said Tinty, "I do like candy — but why do 
I have to be tucked into a corner and sat up on two legs 
as if they were all that I had to stand on? My back wab- 
bles and my paws want to come down — and besides, it's 
very tiresome." 

Toodles licked his chops thoughtfully as Tinty went on: 

"I don't mind giving a glad paw, but what is the use of 

174 



PARLOR TRICKS 



i75 



this sitting up on your hind legs and making yourself so 
uncomfortable ?" 

"Sitting up on his hind legs is an accomplishment for a 




HE'S SO LITTLE TO SIT UP." 



i 7 6 ANIMAL STORIES 

dog," explained Toodles. "It's like the little girl playing 
on the piano ; she has to sit up there in front of that thing 
and have her hands held up and waved over the keys until 
you and I just howl at the noise. But it is all that she may 
go into the reception room some day and show off all by 
herself. They will give her a big piece of candy for it." 

"Tell me more about 'accomplishments/ " begged Tinty, 
trying to get his long pink tongue around the longest word 
he had ever heard. 

"You see, if you know how to do things, folks will ask 
you into society. Maybe you will be asked in to after- 
noon tea with me by and by," continued Toodles, laying an 
affectionate nose on Tinty's soft little cheek. 

It was only a few weeks later that Miss Polly took Tinty 
into the reception room and showed him the tea table with 
the silver basket of candy. 

"Don't touch," said Miss Polly, taking off the little white 
fringed cover and showing him the tempting chocolates. 

Tinty's eyes grew very big, his jaws snapped and his 
whole body trembled in Miss Polly's arms, but he didn't 
so much as try to put his anxious little nose into the dish. 

The little puppy sat quietly out of sight under the table, 
while Toodles sat boldly on his hind legs, resting a paw on 
one of the carved footstools. 

Tinty pricked up his ears as the company came into 
the room. He peeked out shyly to find that the prettiest 
young lady in the room was looking right at him. "Give 
the lady your paw," said Miss Polly, leading Tinty gently 
by his pink bow to the beautiful young lady. 

"Isn't he the dearest little thing!" exclaimed the young 
lady, holding out a jeweled hand. "Let me give you my 
paw, too." 




PARLOR TRICKS 177 

Tinty kept his paw in her hand politely until she took 
hers away, when Miss Polly said: "That isn't all that he 
can do, is it, Tinty?" 

The little dog thumped his tail on the carpet for very 
joy; then he followed his mistress to the corner. 

Then Tinty slowly settled himself on his haunches and 
tremblingly raised his forepaws as prettily as any little 
dog who ever traveled with a circus. 

"Oh, isn't he a darling with his little pink bow? He's 
so little to sit up, too !" cried the young ladies, leaving their 
chairs and offering the little puppy more crackers and 
candy than he could take at one time. 

"Bowwow, bowwow!" cried Toodles, who sat unnoticed 
on the edge of the crowd with upraised paws and trem- 
bling jaws. 

"He's the cleverest little puppy I ever saw, Polly," said 
the prettiest young lady of them all. "I want you to be 
sure to bring him to my 'at home' tomorrow." 

"Toodles," barked Tinty joyously, as the big dog dropped 
down on all fours and scrambled for the crumbs in the 
corner. "What do you suppose?" 

"I don't suppose; tell me, can't you?" answered Toodles, 
with his mouth full, — which wasn't a polite thing to do at an 
afternoon tea. 

"I'm invited to an 'at home' tomorrow. Isn't that per- 
fectly wonderful?" asked the little puppy, whose eyes 
were shining with pride. 

"No, it isn't wonderful when you come to think of it. 
Everybody is anxious to entertain a dog who knows a few 
parlor tricks." 



Tinty and Miss Polly's New Hat 

/^)NCE upon a time Tinty saw a box lying on the floor 
of Miss Polly's room. 

"It's big enough for six puppies and a mamma to live 
in," barked the little dog, raising his forepaws and peeking 
anxiously within. "I do wonder what that thing can be?" 

Then the curious little puppy leaned heavily upon the 
box with his forepaws and poked deeply into the box — just 
as far down as a snub nose could poke. 

"Flip Flop!" went the big box; 'Tip, Yip!" yowled the 
little dog under the box. 

Tinty thought the world was tumbling down around his 
ears, but he was too brave a puppy to keep whining for 
more than the time it takes a little dog to call three times 
for help. Then he got to work to help Tinty. 

He butted a round little head and lifted a broad little 
pair of shoulders and kept doing it over and over again 
with all his tiny might until he had worked his way back 
into the world again. 

"This thing must be an umbrella to carry to a party," 
said Tinty as he lay resting on the floor with his head 
nestled in a garden of rosebuds. "I don't believe Miss 
Polly would even know whether I took a big slice off the 
outside or not." 

The little puppy buried his teeth in the outer brim and 
chewed away with happy growling noises that showed how 
very busily he was working. 

"I'm tired of this stuff, it's just like the basket upstairs," 

178 



TINTY AND MISS POLLY'S NEW HAT t 79 

said Tinty dropping the straw from his strong jaws and 
sniffing the pink flowers with his black snub nose. 

"Oh, my, but it's fun!" he barked friskly happily up and 
down the room and shaking the posies as hard as a terrier 
shakes a rat. "What puppy would believe that these things 
are made of so many pieces, and every color, too. Here 




<^=> 



RESTING ON THE FLOOR WITH HIS HEAD IN A GARDEN OF 

ROSEBUDS. 

are some long hard green stems with wires in them that do 
my teeth good. Oh, its fun to tear up a whole garden all at 
once." 

Tinty took tight hold of the big hat and dragged it after 
him with all his little might. Then he rolled over with it 
until it lay upside down on the floor among the fallen 
petals that hid the green carpet. 

"I'm going to chew the rag now," growled Tinty pulling 
out a white silk cloth that broke easily away from the long 
loose stitches. Tinty held the gathering string of white 
satin baby ribbon between his teeth and kept on pulling un- 
til he found the inside. 



180 ANIMAL STORIES 

"It's only more straw," whined Tinty going back to the 
fallen rose leaves. 

"Oh, my beautiful Easter hat! You little wretch!" cried 
Miss Polly coming into her room and surprising Tinty 
whose pink lined mouth was stuffed with a torn rose. 

Miss Polly didn't wait to pull it out of his mouth — she 
just pounced on her darling little puppy and laid him face 
downward on her knee. Then she slapped him as many 
times over and over again in the same place as any little 
dog has to be slapped in that one place to get what naughty 
little boys and girls know is a good spanking. 

Nothing had ever hurt Tinty's little feelings so in all his 
little life. He yelped loudly for every spank and the one 
that he knew was coming while Toodles slowly crawled up 
the stairs. Toodles couldn't count like the dog at the 
circus, but he knew there were many more spanks for 
Tinty to sit under than there were stairs for him to climb. 

The little puppy ran yelping from beneath his mistress' 
angry hand as fast as his four legs would carry him and 
buried his face in the carpet under the big winged chair. 

Miss Polly still kept on scolding. "If you're so fond of 
eating hats you may have what is left of this one for your 
luncheon, and your dinner, — and your breakfast tomorrow 
morning. Do you hear, you miserable little puppy?" 

Miss Polly went out into the hall and closed the door with 
a bang that frightened Tinty. 

It was a long time before the little dog dared to peek out 
from his hiding place and crawl into the light where he 
found a soft little bed among the chewed up pieces of Miss 
Polly's beautiful hat. 



TINTY AND MISS POLLY'S NEW HAT 181 

"Bowwow," called Toodles loudly scratching at the 
door. 

The little puppy rose to his feet and trotted very slowly 
and lamely across the room to the threshold. 

"I want to talk to you/' ordered Toodles puting his mouth 
close to the crack. "Sit down." 

"I can't just yet," whimpered Tinty looking around back 
of him. "I've been spanked." 

"What for?" barked the big dog sharply. 

"Just 'cause I chewed up something," whimpered Tinty. 

"What was it?" snapped Toodles. 

"Miss Polly said it was her new hat. That's why she 
spanked me so hard." 

"I'm ashamed of you," growled Toodles. "How could 
you do such a mean thing when Miss Polly is so good to 
us?" 

"I couldn't help doing it," whimpered Tinty. "My teeth 
just ached for that hat. I couldn't help chewing it up be- 
cause 'puppies will be puppies.' " 

"Who has been talking that sort of nonsense to you?" 
asked Toodles with a short angry bark. 

"Miss Polly's mamma said so," answered Tinty proudly, 
"She scolded Miss Polly because she didn't put her hat on 
the high shelf. She did." 

"Tinty," said Toodles. "I'm not one bit sorry for that 
spanking fori can tell you that a puppy who is clever 
enough to find out such an excuse for himself is old enough 
to keep his teeth out of Sunday best go to Meeting hats!" 



Toodles and Tinty and the Birthday Cake 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty tried to run away from Miss 
Polly who was washing his face and paws very clean 
with a pink bordered facecloth marked "TINTY." 

"Don't try to run away and hide," barked Toodles with a 
wag of his tail that almost wagged him, "for I am sure that 
something is going to happen. I never was washed so 
clean even on a Sunday before." 

Toodles and Tinty dressed in their blue and pink neck 
ribbons followed Miss Polly grandly down into the dining 
room. 

"Where is the big table?" asked Tinty looking around 
him with wide open eyes. 

"Miss Polly hides a part of it sometimes," explained 
Toodles who had been looking behind the door. "It must 
be a party for two people this time because there are only 
two chairs." 

"How do you know it's a party?" asked Tinty opening 
his eyes very wide and frisking round the room as hard as 
a little puppy can frisk when he is sure that there is going 
to be a party. 

"When folks shut the blinds in the daytime and light 
candles there is sure to be a party," answered Toodles 
wagging his tail so fast that Tinty could hardly see it go. 

"What a funny little chair," said Tinty looking up at the 
strange thing that had long legs like the giraffe who was 
carried by Tinty's house before Tinty had had time to get 
his eyes open. 

182 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND THE BIRTHDAY CAKE 

"I want to beg beside this little chair," said Tinty putting 
a paw on the bottom rung. 

Toodles took his post at the big chair. 

"Bowwow wow ! !" barked Tinty to Toodles as Miss Polly 
took him from his lowly place and lifted him right up into 
the high chair and set his clean forepaws on the edge of the 
clean table cloth. 

Toodles jumped up into the big chair without waiting to 
be helped, while Miss Polly tied a napkin around Tinty's 
neck in two ends that stuck up like frightened Bunny's 
ears. 

"Bowwow wow!" barked Toodles and Tinty both at the 
same time as Miss Polly laid before them a platter of Ham- 
burg steak which everyone knows is the only kind of steak 
a polite dog wants to eat at a party. 

O, Toodles," barked Tinty, in a sharp bowwow, 
'There's a dog on the bottom of this plate who won't lick 
off." 

"He won't hurt you," answered Toodles looking kindly 
across at the little puppy. 

"O, Toodles, what is this?" marked Tinty joyously as he 
stood right up on his hind legs and leaned his forepaws on 
the table. 

"You are looking upon your first birthday cake," ex- 
plained Toodles proudly pointing at the centre of the table. 
"There are four candles on it this year — three are for the 
three years I have already lived and one is to grow on. I 
know all about it because I had a birthday cake with two 
candles when I was one year old and another with three 
candles when I was two years old." 

"What's that red embroidery in the middle and what are 

183 



184 



ANIMAL STORIES 



those brown things ?" sniffed Tinty who wasn't keeping as 
far back in his chair as a little dog should at a party. 

'That is my name spelled out," explained Toodles point- 
ing with his nose to the cake. "Those chocolate things are 
Bunnies sitting on their haunches and holding their forelegs 
out straight the way Bunnies always do." 




| Jb«APrtlNfc£>*lK.t 

"O, TOODLES WHAT IS THIS?" 



Toodles and Tinty both sat up very politely while Miss 
Polly cut two big slices of cake with a bunny and a candle 
on each slice. 

"Puff, puff, puff!" said Miss Polly to the little candles 
that turned out their pretty yellow lights and sent up choky 
wreaths of smoke. 

Toodles and Tinty both coughed as the little candles put 
out their lights. 

Toodles ate his chocolate Bunny first but Tinty licked off 
the frosting with a lively tongue. Then he slowly licked up 
the cake crumbs around the edge of the plate. 

"Oh, what is this?" bowwowed Tinty, as Miss Polly 
brought on two glass dishes. "It's too cold to eat now; 
I'ni going to wait until its gets warm." 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND THE BIRTHDAY CAKE 

"It's ice cream, " said Toodles who looked up with very 
white whiskers from his plate. "It stays only when it's 
cold; it runs away when it's warm." 

Tinty slowly licked the white mound while Toodles took 
mouthfuls that the little mouse in the pantry couldn't help 
hearing if he were anywhere near his hole. 

Miss Polly took off the napkin that was tied around 
Tinty's neck and wiped the whiteness of his nose and 
whiskers all away. 

Then Miss Polly took away Toodles' napkin and laid two 
presents on the table. 

"I wonder what mine can be?" asked the little puppy 
looking at the bundle of pink fringed paper with the gold 
band that held it in place. "I wonder why I can't smell 
those little pink roses growing in the centre?" 

The little puppy looked over to see that Toodles had a 
blue fringed package with a silver band upon it. Toodles 
was sniffing the forget-me-nots upon their silvery bed. 

Tinty looked proudly over at Toodles while Miss Polly 
pulled the ends of the little package. 

"Snap!" called a voice inside. 

Tinty dropped down behind the tablecloth, but Miss Polly 
pulled him up again to show him what was hidden in the 
package. 

It was a little white lace bonnet just big enough for a 
baby dear or a puppy dog. 

Tinty tried to take away his head and whined sadly while 
Miss Polly put the bonnet on his head and tied the strings 
under his fat chin. 

"I'm not afraid to open a snap bon bon, — I've had 

18s 



186 ANIMAL STORIES 

birthdays before," said Toodles putting a paw on his 
beautiful favor, but Miss Polly took it from him. 

"Snap" went the little blue package and out came a blue 
dunce cap and a little ringing bell. 

"Tinty," barked Toodles, "I don't want to wear this old 
blue dunce cap with the bell on it any any more than. you 
want to wear your white bonnet with the strings upon it," 

"Yours fits anyway," answered Tinty looking sweetly out 
from under his white ruffled baby cap. 

Miss Polly said "Puff" to the two little candles that had 
grown to be only baby candles by this time and offered her 
hand to each of the dogs who politely held out their paws. 

Then they scampered down from the table as happily as 
two dogs in a dunce cap and a baby bonnet can scamper 
down from a table. 

'Toodles," whined Tinty, "I just hate old party clothes." 

"So do I," answered Toodles rolling over on the floor and 
catching at the dunce cap with both paws. 

"Why didn't you growl at Miss Polly when she put it 
on?" asked Tinty with his mouth full of white strings. 

"Tinty," answered Toodles as he chewed the blue paper 
into balls, it's never polite to try to get out of anything 
people try to put onto you at a party in your honor." 



Tinty Makes Friends With a Kitten 

/^\NCE upon a time Toodles went all over the house 
looking for Tinty. 

'Tinty/' barked the big dog poking his nose under the 
sofa. "What are you whining about under there?" 

The little dog slowly crawled forward until Toodles could 
see his sorry face. 

"Ow, ow, ow!" he whined," There's a horrid little beast 
in the kitchen who has come to take my place with Miss 
Polly. 

"What kind of a creature is it?" asked Toodles with a 
straight look to his usually happy tail. 

"It's little, but it looks like the big black cat who sits on 
the fence and carries claws under her velvet paws," whim- 
pered Tinty. 

"It's one of her kittens," snapped Toodles. 

"What are kittens?" asked the little puppy. 

"Kittens are little animals that grow into cats and then 
have more kittens," barked Toodles savagely. It's no 
wonder there are so many of the miserable creatures on our 
fences. There are ten of the beasts to one decent dog in 
the neighborhood." 

"Do folks like them better than they do us?" asked 
Tinty with big sorrowful eyes. 

"Indeed they don't," snapped Toodles, "but folks don't 
have to pay five dollars and fifteen cents for a mother cat 
every time the pussy willows come out down by the brook. 
It takes real live money to keep our mothers from going 
straight to the Happy Hunting Grounds." 

187 



188 ANIMAL STORIES 

"I know what we can do," said Tinty wrinkling his fore- 
head anxiously. "We can be so hateful to that kitten that 
the big black cat will have to come over the fence and 
carry her home again." 

'The big black cat is only a boarder over there," ex- 
claimed Toodles. 'That family will never take this kit- 
ten again if they have luck enough to get rid of her once." 

"0, Toodles," whimpered Tinty throwing himself down 
on the ground at the big dog's feet. "Miss Polly took that 
creature into her arms, she did. I saw her— and she patted 
her just the same way that she does me. I scratched her 
dress and put both my forepaws up and cried, but all she 
said was, 'Go away, Tinty, there's a good little dog/ " 

"Poor Tinty," comforted Toodles licking the wrinkled 
forehead. 

"By and by she won't let me go up in her lap at all," 
whimpered Tinty. "I used to be her darling little puppy- 
kins, but now there is no place for me in the wide, wide 
world. I wish I could swallow a tooth and die, or have a 
fit, or catch distemper or something so that Miss Polly 
would feel sorry she was so cross to her little Tinty." 

"She would be sorry," said Toodles licking the little 
puppy very tenderly. "But think how many more chances 
that little kitten would have if you were safely out of her 
way. If I were you I'd be polite even if I didn't like her. 
You must be for Miss Polly's sake." 

"Be polite to a kitten whose own mother scratched your 
eye most out. I saw her myself, I did." 

"I know it isn't in dog nature," agreed Toodles, "but it 
is a duty we owe Miss Polly while we are living under her 
roof." 



TINTY MAKES FRIENDS WITH A KITTEN 189 

"I wouldn't care so much if Miss Polly hadn't poured 
the milk into my bowl and told me to keep away — her own 
darling little puppy. That's what she used to say all her- 
self," whined Tinty piteously. 

"Come out and have a run and forget it," said Toodles, 
starting for the door. 

Tinty cocked his good ear towards the backstairs and 
listened very carefully all in the dark night when he and 
Toodles were asleep in their little beds. 

"I wonder why that kitten is making all that noise to 
keep me awake," snapped Tinty, stretching himself and 
rising to his feet all at once. 'Tin going downstairs to 
tell her to keep her meowing to herself. I'm sure no- 
body else wants it." 

"Mew! mew! mew! mew!" cried the little kitten, who 
stood huddled up in a bunch beside the cold stove. "Mew! 
mew! mew!" 

She opened her mouth very wide to show a little pink 
tongue, while her eyes shone out like two tiny lamps in 
the darkness. 

"I wish you'd hush your meowing and let me have 
some sleep," snapped the little dog very crossly. 

"Mew! mew! mew!" cried the poor little kitten, hud- 
dling more closely in her corner and opening her mouth 
more widely than before. 

"I don't see anything to frighten you," yawned Tinty as 
he looked carefully around the room. 

"I want my mother; I want my mother!" meowed the 
kitten in the sorriest little voice in all kittendom. 

"Why, I had one myself before I came here," barked 
Tinty, feeling just a bit sorry for the little stranger. 



190 



ANIMAL STORIES 



"What did you do all by yourself on the first night ?" 
asked the kitten, unhuddling just the least little bit. 

"I had Toodles, ,, explained Tinty; "he was just as 
good as any dog can be but your mother. ,, 

"You were cross to me when I first came, ,, meowed the 




TOODLES FOUND THEM TOGETHER. 

little kitten. "You see I wanted to make friends, because 
you were little, too. Toodles is so big that I am afraid 
of him. ,, 

"Poor little kitty," said Tinty, laying a cold nose on the 
sorry bunch of fur. "Lie down side of me and see if you 
can't go to sleep." 

"My mamma always purred me to sleep. Can you 
purr?" meowed the little kitten, snuggling up to Tinty's 
warm body. 

"I can only growl, but I will try to do it very softly," 
answered Tinty in an ashamed voice. "But I will stay 



TINTY MAKES FRIENDS WITH A KITTEN 191 

right here with you, you poor little kitty cat without a 
mamma, because I know just how you feel." 

The little kitten cuddled in between Tinty's forepaws 
and hid her face on his broad chest. 

Toodles found them together. Tinty was growling a 
lullaby as best he knew. 

"I thought you just hated that kitten," said Toodles, 
looking down on the happy pair. 

"I did," answered Tinty in a soft voice, "but I was sorry 
for her when I found how unhappy she was without her 
mamma." 

"Do you remember the first night you came here?" 
asked Toodles, with a laugh in his tail. 

"I just do," answered Tinty, looking lovingly down on 
the bunch of fur between his paws. "That's why I know 
how to be sorry for this little kitten." 



Tinty's Little Friend 

/^NCE upon a time Tinty trotted proudly out in his tan 
coat with the brown fur around it. He was very 
proud of his winter coat, because all the little children 
coming out of school used to stop him on the corner and 
say: "Aren't you a dear little puppy? Your name is 
T-I-N-T-Y' — I know, because I know how to spell." 

The little puppy was always willing to give the chil- 
dren a paw on every corner and doorstep and to wait 
patiently until they opened their pockets to let him look 
for a piece of cake or candy. 

Sometimes Tinty would chase the little girls who wore 
their hair in flying braids and catch the long ribbons in his 
mouth. Then the children would all laugh and call out, 
"You're caught!" 

"I just do love all the children," said Tinty, wagging his 
tail happily, "and all the children love me. I never saw 
a child in all my life with whom I couldn't make friends. 
Just look ahead of us, Toodles." 

The big dog looked up to see a little girl taking tight 
hold of her mamma's hand, as all little girls always do. 

"She is the sweetest little girl I ever saw," said Tinty, 
looking lovingly up at a tiny tot in a white fur coat and a 
big poke bonnet with rosebuds on it. 

Tinty walked toward her wagging his tail and trembling 
with happiness from the snub of his nose to the tip of his 
tail. 

"I never saw anything more cunning than that little fur 
coat and that big muff except my own little fur coat with 

192 



TINTY'S LITTLE FRIEND 



193 



my name on it," bowwowed Tinty, cocking his head on one 
side and looking up at the little girl with a very loving 
fact. "I wonder if those little black tails in her muff and 
tippet spell her name, too." 




THE LITTLE DOG WALKED CLOSE UP TO THE LITTLE GIRL. 



The little dog walked close up to the little girl and 
looked at her white leggins and tiny rubber boots. "She 
is a lucky little girl," thought Tinty, lifting first one cold 
foot and then the other; "she doesn't have to lie on her 
back and chew the ice out of her feet every time she 
walks on the cold ground the way we do." 



194 ANIMAL STORIES 

Tinty bent his little body with many shakes and trem- 
bles to one side and laid his head lovingly down on the 
nearer rubber boot. Then he felt of the soft white leg- 
gins with his soft black nose. 

"Oh, why doesn't she hold out her paw or open her 
pocket for me?" whined Tinty, trying to snuggle even 
closer, as the little girl kept moving farther and farther 
away from him. 

"I am going to jump up on her and make her notice me," 
bowwowed Tinty, frisking round and round in a circle and 
coming back again. 

"I'll stand up on my hind legs and put my paws on her 
shoulders and say 'Bowwow' ! Then she will have to 
speak to me. Won't she just love to see a little puppy 
in a fur coat with his name written on it? She will just 
love me, she will, when she finds out how I can hold out 
my paw and make friends." 

Tinty wagged his tail joyously, raised his forepaws to 
the little ermine tippet and kissed the little girl with his 
pink tongue right under the big poke bonnet. 

"Mamma! O, mamma! Maaaaaaaaa!" screamed the 
little girl, hanging tight hold of her mamma and hiding 
her face from loving little Tinty. 

"I'll try again," thought Tinty, standing on his hind feet 
and raising his forepaws to the back of the little ermine 
tippet, where he licked the end of a soft yellow curl. 

"Ma-ma-aaaa !" screamed the little girl again, as she 
drew more tightly to her mamma. 

Tinty dropped to the ground, feeling, oh, so ashamed 
of himself, and whined humbly at the little girl's feet. 

Then the little girl's mamma patted poor Tinty on the 



TINTY'S LITTLE FRIEND 195 

head and said: "Nice little puppy to love my little girl; 
you don't mean to hurt her, do you?" 

Tinty trembled all over and looked up at the lady with 
big eyes that told her he knew what she was saying to 
him. Then he slowly held out his right paw. 

'That's the way to make friends," said the little girl's 
mother, stooping down and taking the outstretched paw. 
"See, my child, the little puppy only wants to make 
friends. Won't you shake hands with him?" 

The little girl looked at the little dog as if she were 
very much afraid of him and hid her hands in the big 
white muff with the black tails on it. 

Tinty whined out loud and held out his paw again. 

Then a wonderful thing happened. A fat round mit- 
tened hand stole out of the muff and took Tinty's out- 
stretched paw. Tinty trembled all over, so that his paw 
shook itself almost off, and looked up at the little girl 
with a low and tender whine. 

Then he put out a loving pink tongue and gently 
brushed the fat white mitten. 

"I love you," said the little girl, not letting go his paw 
until Tinty was so tired of sitting on three feet that he 
had to draw it gently from her. 

Then Tinty rolled over on his back and waved his paws 
to see if he could get them warm again after sitting in 
the cold snow. 

"You dear little puppy!" cried the little girl, as she 
knelt right down in the cold snow in her beautiful fur coat 
and put her arms around Tinty. "I just love you," she 
smiled as she laid a cold pink cheek against the little 
mole with one whisker on it that was on Tinty's cheek. 



igG 



ANIMAL STORIES 



"I do just love you," she said again in a voice as sweet 
as the bells that call the children to the village church. 

"I want you to come home with me and be my little 
puppy," said the little girl. "You can sleep in my dolly's 
bed and have all the bones from the dining room table." 

Tinty rolled over and over in his fur coat for very hap- 
piness, but the little girl's mamma took the little girl by 
the hand and led her away. 

The little girl smiled back over her shoulder as Tinty 
shook himself and wagged his tail happily. 

"She just loves me — that little girl does; I've made an- 
other friend, I have!" bowwowed Tinty to Toodles, joy- 
ously. 

"It's a wonder you made friends with her after the way 
you frightened her," barked the old dog, with a knowing 
look. "A wise dog is never too familiar at first." 



Toodles and Tinty Fight 

/^\NCE upon a time Toodles and Tinty sat before the 
kitchen door waiting for their dinner. 

"It's chicken, " said Toodles, with an upward sniff. "I 
do wish they would hurry; it's cold waiting here in the 
snow." 

"Is it soup or is it roasted ?" asked Tinty, anxiously. "I 
wish the family would let us have our chicken before they 
make soup." 

"They always give us the wings the first day," said Too- 
dles. 

"That's because they're fit only for a dog. What does 
'fit for a dog' mean?" 

"It means the best a dog can get in this world," an- 
swered the big dog, pricking up his ears. "The cook is 
coming." 

"Here, Tinty; here, Toodles," called the cook, throw- 
ing a chicken carcass on the snow-covered ground between 
them. 

The two dogs pounced on it and buried their teeth in 
the squashy framework. 

"I got it first," snapped Toodles. 

"I got it first," snapped Tinty. 

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl," said both Toodles and Tinty at 
once, as their teeth buried themselves more deeply in their 
dinner. 

"I'll bite if you don't let go," growled Toodles, letting 
go his grip on the chicken carcass and fastening his teeth 
in Tinty's saucy little ear. (The little dog's ears were 

197 



198 ANIMAL STORIES 

all left on just as the Lord made him and gave him to his 
mamma.) 

'Tip, yip, yip!" yelped the little dog letting go the pre- 
cious chicken and trying to get away from Toodles. 

"Let me go, Oh, let me go," he yelped more loudly as 
something warm ran down his face. "Oh, stop, Toodles; 
can't you see that my ear is running away from me all 
over the ground?" 

But Toodles wouldn't let go. 

The door opened. "Stop, Toodles!" screamed the cook, 
as she choked the big dog by his broad brass collar with 
the knobs on it. 

Toodles looked slowly down upon the reddening snow 
and then let go the long sharp teeth that were buried in 
Tinty's soft little ear. He sank to the ground for very 
shame and whined piteously: "Oh, Tinty, I'm so sorry; I 
didn't know what I was doing. You may have the chicken 
— all of it to show how truly sorry I am." 

But Tinty didn't so much as look at the chicken — he 
only whined and yelped piteously while the blood ran down 
from his sorry little ear — the saucy little ear that could 
lie over ever so lazily or stand up so proudly and move it- 
self to Toodles' every bowwow was hanging helplessly 
over the side of Tinty's head. 

"Poor little Tinty!" cried Miss Polly, coming out into 
the driveway and carrying Tinty into the house, where 
she laid him on the sofa in the den. 

Tinty yelped loudly while Miss Polly washed the bleed- 
ing ear and dried it with cotton softer and whiter than the 
snow outside. Then she wrapped soft white bandages 
round and round until all you could see of Tinty's face was 



TOODLES AND TINTY FIGHT 



199 



one little stick-up ear, a big brown eye and a snub of a 
nose above his drooping mouth. Then she tied a white 
silk handkerchief outside of the bandages and knotted 
it on the top of Tinty's head in two big Bunny's ears that 
were prettier than any bow that Tinty ever wore to an 
afternoon tea. 




t n 1 n- 1 tt r 

THE LITTLE DOG PEEPED FROM HIS WRAPPINGS. 

The little dog peeped from out his wrappings to whine 
at Toodles, who crawled into the room with his tail tucked 
in between his trembling legs. 

'Toodles, come here," said Miss Polly, coming in with 
a stout branch from the garden. 

Tinty looked sorrowfully down from his place on the 
cushions to see Miss Polly grabbing Toodles by his brass 
knobbed collar. 

'Tip, yip, yip!" yelped the big dog, jumping wildly under 
the stinging blows. 

'Tm sorry," Toodles tried to say as Miss Polly led him 
away and cast him into the outer hall. 



200 ANIMAL STORIES 

It was two days before Toodles saw Tinty cuddled up 
among the cushions at the head of the lounge. He crawled 
very slowly to the foot of the sofa and shyly put up his 
forepaws. Then he raised himself until he lay humbly on 
the foot of the sofa. 

Tinty looked down at him with the most forgiving smile 
in all the world. "Tin sorry they whipped you, Toodles," 
he said, moving his head very stiffly. The little ear still 
hung sorrowfully down. 

The big dog could only hide his head in the striped af- 
ghan. 'Tin so ashamed I can't look up," he bowwowed, 
keeping his face from the little sick puppy. 

Tinty barked joyously: "Oh, you do love me after all 
better than an old chicken bone." 

Toodles crawled slowly to the head of the sofa and 
kissed the loving little face. "Tinty," he whispered, hid- 
ing his nose in the big pillow, "I can only be sorry for that 
little ear and love it. I'd lick my tongue off to make it 
stand up straight again, but it isn't any use. I could keep 
on licking until I'm older than Methuselah, who has lived 
longer than any dog in our town." 

Tinty hid his face in the sofa cushions and whimpered 
pitifully: "Could you hurt my pretty little stick-up ear so 
badly in one moment that you couldn't lick it well again 
in all your life, Toodles?" 

"That is just what I have done," answered Toodles, 
crouching between the pillows and hiding his eyes from the 
forgiving little nose that crept close to his hidden head. 
"A dog can do more harm in a moment that he can make 
up for in a lifetime." 



Tinty and the Stairs 

^\NCE upon a time Tinty and Toodles came to the foot 
of the stairs. 

Toodles climbed up in long jumps, but Tinty sat sadly 
in the hall below. 

"Come on/' bowwowed Toodles cocking up his ears 
and wagging his tail. 

"I can't," whimpered Tinty, dropping his one stick-up 
saucy ear and tucking his tail in. Then the little dog opened 
his mouth and howled as only this little dog could when he 
was left all by his little "lonesome." 

But Miss Polly heard her little puppy dog crying in the 
lower hall. 

Tinty's mouth began to twitch when he saw his mistress 
coming with a piece of cake in her hand. His jaws just 
snapped like a toy cannon when he saw that the cake had 
thick white frosting on the top of it. 

But Miss Polly didn't give Tinty even one bite. She 
broke the cake into two pieces and laid a piece on each 
of the two lower stairs just above his reach. 

Tinty's little mouth and nose looked so sorry at first that 
all he could do was to say "Ow, ow, ow!" — just as if he 
were a wee puppy dog who had only just left his mamma. 

Then Tinty grew very cross. He just jumped up at the 
cake until he once almost touched it with his snubby black 
nose. 

"Bowwow, WOW!" barked the little dog. "That stair 
is only a little taller than I." 

Then Tinty gave a spring with all his little might and 

201 



202 ANIMAL STORIES 

main and caught the piece of cake with the thick white 
frosting on it. 

The little puppy licked his chops and sat looking up at 
the next stair. 

"But what is the use of licking my chops for more when 
I might be getting my teeth into the real thing?" barked 
Tinty putting his soft pink tongue into his saucy mouth 
and drawing his feet together for a grand spring. 

"Bowwow WOW!" barked Tinty as his forefeet landed 
on the first stair and his hind feet slowly drew up after. 

The little dog looked up at the next stair where a 
bigger piece of cake with thick white frosting was waiting 
for a little puppy dog who wasn't afraid to climb. 

"Bowwow WOW!" barked Tinty looking up with eyes 
as big and round as lolly pops and a nose as wiggly as 
moving pictures. "I can get this piece, too. I wonder 
why it doesn't seem any higher above my head than the 
other piece?" 

"Good Tinty, you'll get it," remarked Toodles who stood 
on the top stair watching his little friend anxiously. 

"BOWWOW WOW!" barked Toodles loudly as Tinty 
jumped up, snapped his jaws and looked up at Toodles 
with a pair of very stuffy cheeks and sugary whiskers. 

After that Tinty went every day to the foot of the stair- 
case and climbed a few stairs higher. Miss Polly had 
left a bit of cake on every stair waiting for him — the 
pieces of cake grew bigger and bigger as the stairs grew 
higher and higher. When Tinty climbed to the second 
landing he found a whole little round frosted cake just big 
enough for a puppy dog waiting for him. After that day 



TINTY AND THE STAIRS 203 

there were no more crumbs on every stair but there was 
a big dish of ice cream in the hall above. 

"My, but it's good," barked Toodles. "You can smell 
it, can't you?" 

"Oh, how can I ever get way up there?" whimpered 
Tinty to Toodles who was always too polite to steal any- 
thing when he knew that it was meant for his little Tinty. 

"Keep on climbing," barked Toodles cheerfully point- 
ing his nose at the plate of ice cream. 

"I'm all out of breath," puffed Tinty in a sad whine as 
he stopped almost at the top stair. His mouth was wide 
open and his tongue was hanging out — if ever any little 
puppy dog wanted some ice cream it was Tinty Barker. 

"Keep on," barked Toodles just above him. "There's 
only one stair more." 

Then Tinty pulled himself together again and gave one 
spring that landed him in the hall above. 

"BOWWOW WOW!" barked Toodles circling around 
happy Tinty who buried his anxious nose and mouth in 
the cold ice cream. Tinty made room for Toodles with 
him in the dish because there was more than ice cream 
enough for one little puppy dog, even if his pink velvety 
tongue was hanging out. 

The two dogs politely licked the plate and then licked 
their chops while they stretched themselves on the thick 
fur rug that lay in the upper hall. 

Tinty looked over the long steep stairs into the hall 
below. "How did I ever get all the way up here?" he 
asked turning a pair of wondering eyes on the big dog. 
"I can't see how a little puppy dog like me ever did it." 



2o 4 ANIMAL STORIES 

"It was easy enough, Tintykins," said Toodles licking 
the little puppy's upturned face. "You see you came up 
here one stair at a time." 






; 



Tinty Climbs to a High Place 

y^vNCE upon a time Tinty saw the breakfast table just 
^^ as the family had left it a moment before. The lit- 
tle puppy looked all around him very carefully to see if 
any one were looking as he said: 'There must be some- 
thing good left up there, because the family are never po- 
lite enough to lick their platters clean and please the cook.'' 

Tinty raised his forepaws and stood on his hind paws 
until he had made himself long enough to lay his head 
on the nearest chair. 'Til jump up now," bowwowed 
Tinty, trying to catch hold of the seat by his claws and 
falling backwards. "O, dear/' whined the little puppy 
sadly. 'This chair won't help me up, it won't. I'll try 
the next one and the next." 

'They are all too high," growled Tinty, looking up again 
at the tablecloth. "I wonder if I could put my teeth into 
that thing and bring down the breakfast that's waiting for 
me if only I can get hold of it." 

Tinty pulled and tugged at the tablecloth and then threw 
himself under the table to have a little whine all by -his 
little lonesome. 

"I wonder if that's a thing to help a dog up?" asked 
Tinty, looking at a leather footstool that stood before a 
chair. "I'm going to try to climb up it and then I'll be as 
tall as Toodles." 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" cried Tinty, as he slowly worked his way 
to the top of the footstool and saw the seat of a chair 
not so very far above him." 

20.S 



206 



ANIMAL STORIES 



Tinty gave a long hard spring and fell backwards with 
a sorry thud to the ground, where he had started. 

"I'll try again," barked Tinty, forgetting all about how 
sore his little sides felt, and thinking only of the good 
things above his head. 




TO SEE IF THE FAMILY BURY THEIR BONES IN HERE. 

Tinty fell back a second time with a thump that was all 
the louder because he had tried the harder to spring from 
the footstool to the chair. 

"I'll try again," said Tinty, tightening his square little 
jaw and holding his body in readiness for a big spring. 
"I'll never give up so long as I'm a live dog with any climb 
left in me." 

Then Tinty made a long, steady spring that landed him 
safely up in the slippery seat of the naughty chair that 
had sent him back from the place he had started from so 
many times. 

"Bowwow wow!" cried Tinty, who knew that this was 






TINTY CLIMBS TO A HIGH PLACE 207 

not the place to stop, for the things he longed for lay still 
far above him. 

The little dog stood on the tips of his hind paws and set 
his forepaws in the thickly padded cloth that covered the 
table. 

"I can't get a paw's length ahead with all this pulling 
and tugging," barked Tinty, "but I'll get there some day if 
I don't mind keeping at it." 

At last one long strong pull on the tablecloth brought 
his head over the edge of the table. His hind legs slowly 
but surely followed after. 

"BOWWOW WOW!!!" barked Tinty as loudly as he 
knew how and looked proudly at the cloth beneath his feet, 
on which lay the good things for which he had climbed. 

"I'll eat the meat off the bones before I bury them in 
my yard," said Tinty to himself, as he went quickly from 
plate to plate. "Here's a butter ball — a whole one. Miss 
Polly must have left it for me, because she knows I just 
do like butter." 

"It's funny how the family always have a little garden 
in the center of the table," said Tinty, looking at the bright 
red poinsettas growing amid a border of maiden hair ferns. 
"I'm going to scratch up a piece to see if the family bury 
their bones in here." 

"There's nothing there but dirty earth," said Tinty, 
stopping to lick his chops and wiping his feet carefully on 
the tablecloth. 

Then Tinty went slowly around from cup to cup and 
licked out the sugar in the bottom until his little 
whiskers were all sticky again. 

"You horrid little beast," cried Miss Polly, coming into 



208 ANIMAL STORIES 

the dining room and bending over the broken flowers. 
"Who would have thought of a puppy getting way up 
here?" 

Tinty didn't cry or run — he just looked at Miss Polly 
and held out a loving paw while she scolded. The little 
puppy didn't take his paw back, but kept waving it as 
he whined in a sad little voice that made Miss Polly feel 
sad, too. 

"I suppose I shall have to forgive you," said Miss Polly, 
putting the broken poinsetta in her hair and looking in 
the mirror over the sideboard. 

Toodles came leaping into the room. "How did you 
ever get way up there?" he barked in a cheerful voice. 

"I began at the bottom and climbed up over everything 
until it stopped knocking me down," explained Tinty. "I 
didn't mind how much it hurt me, because I wasn't think- 
ing about anything but reaching the top." 

"Are you sure you didn't hurt yourself?" asked Toodles. 

"I don't care if I did," answered Tinty. "I forgot all 
about it the moment I got up. But aren't you surprised 
that I am up here?" 

"Not a bit," said Toodles, "when you're an old dog like 
me, you'll know that a dog who can stand hard knocks will 
get to the top every time." 



Toodles and Tinty Have Christmas 

/^NCE upon a time Tinty looked up at the mantelpiece 
with both eyes wide open. "Come, Toodles," he 
barked. "Why do you suppose the family are hanging 
their stockings up here tonight? I never knew them to do 
such a thing before. " 

"That's because you are less than one year old. If 
you had ever seen a Christmas you would know that those 
stockings are hung up empty over night and filled with all 
sorts of good things before morning. They call the things 
'presents/ because you don't have to pay for them." 

"Do you suppose we shall find anything?" asked Tinty. 

"Indeed we shall," answered Toodles. "One of those 
stockings is for me and the other is for you. Now, let's 
go to bed and sleep the time away as fast as we can." 

"It will be a very long night," yawned Tinty, walking 
slowly away from the fireplace. 

"It's the longest in the year," answered the big dog, 
looking kindly down on Tinty. "The littlest child knows 
that." 

"Why can't we wake the family up real early?" asked 
Tinty. 

"We won't have to wake them up at all; they wake 
themselves up on Christmas morning," answered Toodles. 

"Come, Toodles; come, Tinty!" cried Miss Polly in the 
dark night when the stars were still shining in through 
the open window. 

The little dog hung on Miss Polly's long blue train and 
nipped mischievously at the blue slippers with the fuzzy 

209 




JZ>£><ca> *\\ N6^Tt>^^ 



"CHOOSE, TINTY," SHE SAID. 
2IO 



TOODLES AND TINTY HAVE CHRISTMAS 211 

swansdown tops as they went down the hall to the mantel- 
piece. 

Miss Polly took Tinty right up in her arms and held him 
before the long row of stockings. "Choose, Tinty," she 
said, holding his nose over each one and waiting very pa- 
tiently for him to make up his puppy mind. 

"Bowwow! Wow!!!" barked Tinty wildly, ploughing 
his snubby nose down into a stocking at the farther end. 

"Smart dog!" cried Miss Polly, as she laid the stock- 
ing on the floor. "How did you know that it was yours? 
Here's one for you, Toodles." 

The big dog was sitting up on his hind legs and begging 
as politely as he knew how. 

The little dog buried his nose in the stocking and shook 
it until he found something very tough and just a little bit 
"smelly." It rattled when he shook it. "O, Toodles," he 
cried, jumping round and round and pulling at the bundle, 
"I do believe I have a collar just like yours." 

"But that isn't all I've found. Here's a padlock with a 
little key for Miss Polly to wear on her watch chain. Such 
a dear little one I could swallow it whole." 

Miss Polly slipped the collar round Tinty's thick neck 
and clasped it at the last hole. 

"It's very loose," said Tinty to Toodles, as he gave his 
head a shake and made the collar rattle out loud. "But I've 
head enough to keep it on." 

Miss Polly hid the bones high on the mantelpiece while 
she locked the little brass padlock with the tiny key. Then 
she seated herself in the big wing chair and held out her 
hands to Toodles and Tinty. 

The little dog looked at Toodles. "I suppose she is 



212 ANIMAL STORIES 

waiting for us to give her a present now," he said sadly, 
looking down on his empty paws. "But what has a little 
dog like me to give on Christmas day?" 

The big dog made no answer, but sprang up into Miss 
Polly's lap and rested his head lovingly against her shoul- 
der. Tinty scrambled after him with the help of Miss 
Polly and rested his head on the other shoulder. Tinty's 
tail wagged his body so fast that it just shook with delight 
and his good ear stood up as straight as the chimney Santa 
Claus had come down. 

Miss Polly took a pair of empty forepaws in each of her 
hands. "Good dogs!" she smiled. 

Tinty rattled his collar and snuggled under Miss Polly's 
chin; so did Toodles. 

"Bowwow WOW!" said Tinty in his politest voice, put- 
ting a cold nose against his mistress' little pink ear. 

"You dear little thing," cried Miss Polly, "I do believe 
you are trying to say Thank you.' If you are, say 'y es / " 
begged Miss Polly, making Tinty look straight at her with 
his big eyes and nodding her head backward and forward. 
The little dog never took his eyes from hers as he moved 
his head up and down in a nod as really truly as Miss 
Polly's own. 

"You darling little puppykins," whispered Miss Polly, 
taking Tinty right up in her arms and cuddling him tight, 
"your thanks are the sweetest present I have had this 
Christmas day." 






Tinty and the Law 

/^~\NCE upon a time Toodles found Tinty hiding in the 
clothes basket under the laundry table. 

"Is that you?" bowwowed a sorry little voice as one 
ear showed over the edge of the basket. 

"Why don't you come out and show yourself ?" asked the 
big dog. 

"I don't dare to come," whined the sad little voice 
through the cracks in the straw. 

'Tinty/' asked Toodles in a sharp bowwow, "have you 
taken a bite out of the cook's roast chickens?" 

"No," whimpered the little puppy; "I only wish I had; 
this was a tough bite — it was." 

"What kind of meat have you been stealing?" 

"It wasn't meat, except way inside where I couldn't 
reach it; I didn't get anything but rubber and it almost 
pulled my teeth out — it did." 

"Why did you try to get your teeth through a piece of 
nasty-tasting rubber?" snapped Toodles. 

"Because that was the only way to get the bad man on 
the inside," explained Tinty in one long whimper. 

"Did you really bite him?" asked the big dog, hiding an 
anxious face from the little puppy. 

"I tried," answered Tinty, feeling very much ashamed. 

"Why did you do it?" snapped Toodles, listening very 
carefully as if some one were coming. 

"Because the naughty man came over the fence and 
dropped to the ground without so much as saying 'Nice 
dog' or holding out a paw. I tried to bark him away and 

213 



2T 4 ANIMAL STORIES 

he kicked me, he did," whimpered Tinty. 'Then I put my 
teeth into him." 

"What did the man say after you had bitten him?" 
asked Toodles. 

"I don't know all the words he said," answered Tinty, 
who was an innocent little puppy. 

"An old dog like me can imagine," said Toodles. "See 
if you can't remember something he said?" 

"I remember one thing:" answered the little puppy, 
-wrinkling his forehead, "he said: 'Rubber boots come 
high; you'll pay for this.' His boots were most as high 
-as the fence," added Tinty. "Then he tried to kick me, but 
I ran away, I did. Then he ran away and called out: 
^You'll pay for this, you will.' " 

Toodles listened with drooping ears. 

"How can a dog pay for things when he hasn't any pock- 
ets to keep money in like a monkey?" asked Tinty, won- 
deringly. 

"Don't talk any more about it just now; come with me," 
answered Toodles, trotting slowly out of the house. "We 
might as well be out if anybody calls for you this after- 
noon," he said, with an eye on the little dog. 

Toodles led Tinty sadly around to the court house, where 
the giant mastiff sat calmly on the high stone steps, giving 
liis paw to the judge and jury and prisoners alike. 

justice rose slowly on all four feet and stood looking 
down upon them. 

Tinty hid behind Toodles while the big dog told the 
whole story with bowwows that ended in howls: "You 
can tell us about the law of man. What will they do to 
my poor little puppy?" 



TINTY AND THE LAW 215 

"So that tiny creature has bitten a great man with rub- 
ber boots on him as thick as rhinoceros hide?" declared 
Justice. 

Tinty could only bow his bent head lower to the ground. 

"Did you know that dogs who bite folks have to be 
killed?" asked Justice. 

"Why?" trembled Tinty, falling with his face upon the 
stone flags. 

"Because the law says so," explained Justice in a stern 
voice. 

"What is the law?" asked Tinty, with a look in his eyes 
which showed how little a puppy can know of the big world 
in which he finds himself. 

"The law is the power that says, 'An eye for an eye, and 
a tooth for a tooth,' and a life for a bite if you're a dog," 
answered Justice, who even now was cocking his ears to 
listen to the distant hum in the court room. 

"Why didn't the law come out of the court house where 
it keeps itself shut up and tell me how to be a good little 
puppy before I was a bad little puppy?" howled Tinty in 
a voice that made Toodles hide from the eyes of the great 
mastiff. 

"That isn't the law's business," answered Justice. "The 
law has enough to do catching folks who have broken it." 

"I wish I had bitten the arm of the law," growled Tinty, 
raising his bowed head and squaring his drooping jaw. 

"What made a little creature like you try to bite a big 
man?" asked Justice. 

"He came over my fence without giving a paw or say- 
ing anything. He kicked me, too." 



216 ANIMAL STORIES 

Justice wagged his tail and looked kindly down on the 
little puppy before him. 

"The law can not touch you if you bit him on your own 
grounds after he had climbed over your fence. From 
what I have learned about this place you need have no 
fear of any man." 

Toodles and Tinty thanked Justice and trotted down the 
street. 

"The law couldn't touch me, it couldn't/' bowwowed 
Tinty in a firm voice. 

"You can be a very bad little dog and still keep on the 
safe side of the law," mourned Toodles in a deep voice. 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" said Tinty, "what is a little dog like me to 
do with all these great big laws?" 

"I tell you what it is, Tinty," said Toodles, with the 
sweetest look on his dear old face. "There is one law 
greater than all the laws of mankind — a dog can't go 
wrong if he keeps in it." 

"It must be too big for a little puppy to keep," said 
Tinty, looking anxiously up at Toodles. 

"No, it isn't," answered Toodles affectionately — "be- 
cause the greatest of all laws is the law of kindness. No 
matter how many kicks you see coming to you, hold in 
your bite and hold out a friendly paw." 



Toodles and Tinty and Scrapper 

/^\NCE upon a time Toodles and Tinty were looking out 
of the window, pressing their cold noses flatly against 
the glass. They rested their hind paws on the arm of the 
velvet chair and leaned their forepaws on the wide window 
sill. 

Toodles growled way down deep in his throat as a big 
bull dog strutted by, taking up the whole sidewalk. 

The little dog dropped out of sight below on the velvet 
chair and hid his face against the embroidered tidy, but 
Toodles proudly raised his head, lengthened his strong 
body, growled somewhere deep inside, and glowered at the 
big dog until he passed from sight. Then Toodles jumped 
down and tore up into another chair to eye him but of 
sight from another window. 

"Who is that terrible beast?" whimpered Tinty, still 
hiding in the same chair. 

"They call him 'Scrapper/ replied Toodles, skinning 
his teeth at the very thought of his enemy. "It wouldn't 
be a square fight if I had to meet him, because I'm not in 
his class by five pounds." 

"Can't you keep out of his wicked way?" asked Tinty 
with a very long look on his round face. 

"I've pretended not to see him (when he growled at me 
a great many times) , but I fear the time has come when he 
will make me fight him." 

"He could chew you all up," whimpered Tinty. "And 
then what would I do for some one to play with? The fam- 

217 



2l8 



ANIMAL STORIES 




V:.^ .1*. 






"THEY CALL HIM SCRAPPER.* " 

ily are all right, of course, but they aren't my kind — that's 
all." 

"There's just one hope," said Toodles, trying to look 
cheerful for Tinty's sake. 

"What 'is it?" asked Tinty, wagging his tail just a little 
way. 

"That thing around his neck is no fighting collar. If I 
could get a grip on his throat in the first round there would 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND SCRAPPER 219 

be a fighting chance for me. I can bury my teeth in his 
windpipe and hold on until he chokes." 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" whimpered Tinty right out loud. "I'm so 
afraid of fights; why can't you always stay in the back 
yard and be safe and happy?" 

"A dog who won't come out and face his enemies isn't 
half a dog," answered the big dog, squaring his jaw. 

The two dogs trotted happily down the street after Miss 
Polly, who was going to the postoffice. 

"Toodles," barked Tinty sharply, as he sniffed timidly 
on ahead, "that dreadful Scrapper is just around the cor- 
ner. Run before he smells you!" 

Toodles answered never so much as a bowwow, and 
trotted bravely around the corner without so much as 
looking to the left or right, but the wag went out of his 
stumpy tail. 

Scrapper straightened his tail, lowered his head, snarled 
angrily and sprang on Toodles the moment he caught sight 
of him. 

The big dog got Toodles by the ear just as Toodles bur- 
ied his teeth in the tender skin under Scrapper's thick 
bull neck. 

"Yip, yip, yip!" yelped Scrapper, trying to shake Toodles 
off and rolling over with snapping jaws that closed on his 
ear and face. 

"Yip, yip, yip!" yelped Toodles, as he rolled over and 
over with teeth still buried deep in his enemy's throat. 
"I won't let go of that Scrapper until he kills me," thought 
Toodles bravely to himself. "This is a regular death grip." 

"Oh, dear, Oh, dear," whimpered Tinty as the two big 



220 



ANIMAL STORIES 



dogs rolled over and over, snarling and growling and yelp- 
ing frantically and drawing blood at every move. "My poor 
dear Toodles will be killed; I know he will. I wonder if 
it wouldn't help some if I bit that mean old Scrapper's 
tail? They say my teeth are sharp as needles." 

Tinty trotted timidly up to the struggling pair and looked 
fearfully down at Scrapper's great body as they rolled 
over and over until Toodles got Scrapper down on his 
back. Then the little puppy put two shaking paws for- 
ward and tremblingly buried his sharp white teeth in the 
fallen Scrapper's tail. 

"Hang on, Toodles," bowwowed Tinty over the body 
of their enemy. "I'm onto my end of the game." 

"I will," growled Toodles between closed jaws, "I'll 
choke the life out of him if he doesn't chew the face off 
of me first." 

The little dog put in a harder bite — one that Scrapper 
knew he was getting all right. "He's keeping pretty still 
now," barked Tinty, wagging his tail just a little bit. "I 
wonder if he is beginning to choke yet?" 

A shout went up from the crowd who had gathered round 
to watch the fight. Tinty jumped wildly on the edge of the 
group, for the mighty Scrapper slowly let go his hold 
on Toodles and fell backward on the sidewalk like a dead 
dog. Still Toodles held on for grim death. 

"Why are they pouring all that cold water over my 
Toodles?" whimpered Tinty as he stood in the way of the 
policeman with a pail of water. Still Toodles didn't let go. 

Then the man twisted a stick under his heavy collar, 
and tightened it until Toodles strangled for breath. Then 
he loosened his jaws, struggled for breath, growled over the 






TOODLES AND TINTY AND SCRAPPER 221 

fallen Scrapper and trotted proudly through the crowd to 
Miss Polly, who stood in the corner with her face hidden 
in a handkerchief. 

"Hurray, hurray, hurray !" cried the crowd, looking at 
proud Toodles. 

"Three cheers for the pup that bit his tail !" cried a 
newsboy, swinging his hat in the air. 

"Hurray, hurray, HURRAY!!!!" cried the crowd wildly. 

"Did I help any?" asked Tinty, getting as close to Too- 
dles as he could and looking proudly at the bleeding 
wounds. 

"Indeed you did. You're a brave little puppy," an- 
swered Toodles. 

Tinty wagged his tail. "It was great, Toodles," he said, 
"but your good looks are gone. I wish we had both stayed 
safely at home in the back yard." 

"Tinty," answered Toodles, moving himself very stiffly 
as he watched Scrapper slink out of sight, "a scarred-up 
hero is better than a pretty-faced cur any day." 



Toodles and Tinty and Hinkey Dinkey 

f\NCE upon a time Toodles and Tinty trotted down the 
street together to call on their friend, Hinkey Dinkey, 
who hadn't run in to see them for the past twenty-four 
hours. 

"I hope he hasn't been hurt in a fight or run over by an 
automobile or been taken down with distemper," bow- 
wowed Toodles anxiously, as he looked up at the curtain- 
less windows where Hinkey Dinkey had always lived with 
his family. 

"Bowwow wow," called the big dog. 

"Bowwow," duetted Tinty, looking up, too. 

"I do hope he hasn't gone to The Happy Hunting 
Grounds," howled Toodles, lifting his voice high in air. 

"Where's that?" asked the little dog, raising his voice 
higher in air. 

"Nobody knows," answered Toodles. "It's just a place 
they say a dog goes when he never comes back to tell 
anything about it." 

"Oh, Oh, Oh!" said Tinty, wonderingly. 

"Maybe we can get onto Hink's scent," said Toodles, 
nosing along the sidewalk and down the street. Tinty put 
his snub nose all over the sidewalk, too. 

"Bowwow!" barked the big dog sharply. "I've got him." 

Tinty followed Toodles under the steps of the last house 
down the street and gave a joyous little bark. 

But Hinkey Dinkey didn't even wag his tail; he just lay 
crouched on the ground in the farthest corner and looked 

222 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND HINKEY DINKEY 223 

at his two friends with the most lonesome eyes in all the 
world. 

''My family have left town and me," whimpered Hink, 
who had lost his puppy teeth before Toodles had so much 
as opened his eyes. 

"It's too bad," said Toodles, "but maybe you wouldn't 
feel so unhappy if you came out in the sunshine and chased 
cats or did something to have a good time." 

"I don't dare to go out," answered Hinkey Dinkey, with 
a frightened look through the slats. "The dog man is 
after me, because my license to live isn't paid." 

Hinkey Dinkey howled dismally, while Toodles and Tinty 
stood over him and licked him as tenderly as they knew 
how. 

Tinty could only whimper and howl way up in "G," but 
Toodles barked up as cheerfully as he knew how and talked 
very sensibly. 

"Cheer up, old dog r you aren't dead yet," he said. "A 
dog who has as many friends as you have ought to have 
plenty of them on hand when it comes to a talk of your 
dying." 

The newsboys of the town were gathered in a group 
around the postoffice when the dog man went up the street 
with a long rope. 

"Where's that big dog they call 'Hink'?" he asked in a 
loud voice, looking at the boys. 

"You can't have him; he's our dog!" cried the leader of 
the gang. "Who wants him?" 

"The town wants him," answered the man in a gruff 
voice. "His license hasn't been paid." 

"He can't have our dog," cried the boys in one voice, 



224 



ANIMAL STORIES 



throwing down their papers and breaking loose as they 
ran up the street yelling "Hink, Hink, Hink!" 

"Pass the word to the fellows, I've found him," whis- 
pered the leader of the gang, who had looked under the 
doorstep to find the missing Hink, lying with his face 
upon the earth. 

"Get up, Rink!" barked Toodles very softly way back in 
his throat. "Your friends are coming forward." 

Toodles poked his nos3 through the lattice work and 
barked joyously: "Here's the Chinaman from the laundry 
where you used to bark away the bad boys. Here's the 
colored cook from the restaurant where you used to chase 
cats out of the garbage can. Here's the old lady who lives 
in the house you used to watch whenever she asked you to 
come in." 

Hinkey Dinkey raised his ears as he heard the voices 
of the crowd closing in around the man with the rope. 

"He's our dog; you can't have him. No, sir!" cried the 
boys over and over again with scowling faces. 

"Velly good dogee; sleepe my launlee," said the China- 
man flourishing his hot flat in air. 

"I'se gwine to give him all the scraps from dish yeah 
place," said the colored cook, twirling an iron spoon. 

"I'll gladly pay for his collars and have the veterinary 
to call on him if he's sick," said the old lady, holding up 
a sharp pair of steel knitting needles. 

"They're putting their hands into their pockets and drop- 
ping something that rattles into a hat," said Tinty, who was 
looking out through a hole in the lattice work. 

Toodles jumped round and round for very joy. "It's a 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND HINKEY DINKEY 225 

collection to pay your license/' he barked in Hink's droop- 
ing ear. 

"We've got it. Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" cried the 




HINKEY DINKEY 

crowd as the dog man put the long thick rope into his 
pocket and went whistling down the street. 
"Hink, Hink, Hink, 
You'll get him 
Don't you think!" 
shouted the boys at the top of their lungs. 

Hinkey Dinkey slowly crawled out and wagged his tail 
at the friends who had come forward to save his life. 
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" cried the newsboys taking 



226 ANIMAL STORIES 

Hink on their shoulders and carrying him in a triumphal 
procession through the main street, shouting all the while: 
"Hink, Hink, Hink! 
You'll get him 
Don't you think !" 
Toodles proudly followed on the heels of the newsboys 
and Tinty followed on the heels of Toodles. Everybody, 
even the leading business men, looked up as they passed by. 
"Wasn't Hinkey Dinkey a lucky dog at last?" asked 
Tinty, trying to catch up with Toodles. 

"You see there is nothing like having friends when you 
are in trouble," answered Toodles, giving three barks for 
Hinkey Dinkey, the newsboys' dog. 






Toodles and Tinty and Blue Boy 

/^\NCE upon a time Tinty hid in a comer of the garden 
all by his little self. A pussy cat walked on the fence 
beside him, a bird sang in the tree above him, and a bee 
hummed around him, but Tinty didn't care enough to raise 
his head. 

"What is the matter ?" asked Toodles, with an affection- 
ate bowwow. 

"Nothing," answered Tinty in a voice which meant a 
big "something." 

"Have you been spanked?" asked Toodles. 

"Not for most a week," answered Tinty proudly. 

"Let me feel if your nose is cold," said Toodles anx- 
iously, smelling the little turned-up pug. "Are you sure 
you haven't swallowed a tooth?" 

"No," whined Tinty. "They are all in; see if they 
aren't?" 

Tinty opened his mouth with a long wide gape. 

"Have you a pain in your little tummy?" asked Toodles, 
throwing the little puppy on the ground and gently rolling 
him over and over. 

"It's worse than my stomach; it's my feelings," whim- 
pered Tinty. Then he yapped right out loud. 

"Poor Tinty, come out here and roll in the sun and tell 
me all about it," comforted Toodles. "It's a stupid dog 
who doesn't know that one's feelings can hurt worse than 
all one's insides put together." 

The big dog waited patiently. 

227 



228 



ANIMAL STORIES 



"It's about blue ribbons," whimpered Tinty, not looking 
straight at Toodles. 

"Why are you worried about blue ribbons? You don't 
own one." 

"That's just the trouble," owned Tinty. "I haven't got 
one. 

"What fool dog has been talking to you about blue rib- 
bons?" asked Toodles in a sharp bowwow. 




"IT'S ABOUT BLUE RIBBONS'' WHIMPERED TINTY 



"BBBBBBBBlue BBB Boy," whimpered Tinty. 

"Has he a blue ribbon?" asked Toodles. "Well, he 
needs it. Of all the know-nothing dogs I think he is about 
the worst. I wouldn't change a good fighting collar for 
any old blue ribbon to hang up in the house." 

"Of course, he can't wear it," said Tinty. 

"Then what good does it do him?" snapped Toodles. 

"It shows that he's some dog and has a 'pedigree.' He 



TOODLES AND TINTY AND BLUE BOY 229 

1 
says you can't buy one anywhere unless you are born with 

it. Was I born with a pedigree, Toodles?" 

Tinty raised the saddest pair of eyes to Toodles' face 
that Toodles had ever seen in Tinty's head. 

"I don't know," answered the big dog, trying to be as 
truthful as he knew how to be. "But there's one thing cer- 
tain, you had a mother and you're a live dog. What more 
do you want?" 

"I need grand sires and grand dames to get me into the 
dog show. Blue Boy says you can't so much as get in- 
side the show unless all your family are high bred all the 
way back. There's no 'class' to you!" 

"So you are crying to get into the dog show?" said Too- 
dles slowly. "Why do you care so much about it? It's 
very tiresome to have to sit upon a bench for three days 
and look at folks when you're longing to be out chasing 
cats and digging in your bone yard and finding out what's 
doing around the town. Besides all this, you would have 
to live on a diet and keep yourself just so fat or just so 
thin and have baths and brushings enough to make you 
wish you were a common street dog." 

"I didn't know; I thought it was all fun," barked Tinty 
cheerfully, wagging his tail a tiny bit. 

"Indeed it isn't," Toodles went on; "I had a friend who 
had traveled all over the country to be in shows. He led 
a dog's life of it, he did, with the training he had to go 
through. He said that the dog on the outside always en- 
vies the dog on the inside, because he has never had a 
chance to find out how happy a life of freedom really is." 

"I never thought about that before," said Tinty, giving 



230 ANIMAL STORIES 

his tail a real wag for the first time since he had seen 
Blue Boy on the avenue. 

"It's dog nature to want what a dog can't have," said 
Toodles, "but you must remember that there are very few 
dogs in this world who have a chance to come before the 
judge's bench. "The Lord must like common dogs, or else 
there wouldn't be so many mongrels in the world." 

"But I do wish I could be a blue ribbon dog," said Tinty 
enviously. 

"Forget it," snapped Toodles a bit impatiently. "Try 
to be a Dog Dog — it doesn't matter about your pedigree, 
but it does matter about you — how much real Dog there 
is in you." 

"I suppose I am a 'dog,' " agreed the little dog, wagging 
his tail almost cheerfully. 

"Indeed, you are a Dog with a capital 'D'!" answered 
Toodles, with a fatherly air. "It's in you, puppy of mine, 
to grow into so much of a Dog that Blue Boy will have 
to see it for himself." 

"I'll try to," answered Tinty, spreading his forepaws and 
raising his head proudly. 

"Good Tinty!" said Toodles. "The next time you meet 
a prize pup just throw out your chest and tell him you're 
a real Dog Dog." 



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